Private Advisor Group LLC Sells 1,779 Shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Private Advisor Group LLC reduced its stake in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 5.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 31,256 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,779 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC’s holdings in Block were worth $2,098,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Block by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,511,250 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,088,122,000 after acquiring an additional 318,549 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in Block by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,096,614 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,107,712,000 after acquiring an additional 582,826 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its holdings in Block by 45.7% in the 2nd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 10,085,229 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $650,396,000 after acquiring an additional 3,163,975 shares during the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC increased its holdings in Block by 13.9% in the 2nd quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 7,670,523 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $494,672,000 after acquiring an additional 934,588 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Block by 17.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,157,733 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $139,143,000 after acquiring an additional 326,444 shares during the last quarter. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Block from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Macquarie reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $88.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Needham & Company LLC dropped their price objective on shares of Block from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Block from $82.00 to $74.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $88.79.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Roelof Botha acquired 434,405 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $57.55 per share, for a total transaction of $25,000,007.75. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 434,405 shares in the company, valued at $25,000,007.75. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, Director Roelof Botha acquired 434,405 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $57.55 per share, for a total transaction of $25,000,007.75. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 434,405 shares in the company, valued at $25,000,007.75. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.88, for a total transaction of $30,940.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 92,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,715,608.08. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 25,214 shares of company stock worth $1,637,932. 10.49% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Block Trading Down 1.7 %

NYSE:SQ opened at $73.21 on Wednesday. Block, Inc. has a one year low of $38.85 and a one year high of $87.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a current ratio of 1.82. The firm has a market cap of $45.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 95.08, a P/E/G ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.49. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $67.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $66.87.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.09. Block had a net margin of 3.47% and a return on equity of 3.77%. The business had revenue of $6.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.27 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.40 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Block, Inc. will post 1.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Block Profile

Square, Inc provides payment and point-of-sale solutions in the United States and internationally. The company's commerce ecosystem includes point-of-sale software and hardware that enables sellers to turn mobile and computing devices into payment and point-of-sale solutions. It offers hardware products, including Magstripe reader, which enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Contactless and chip reader that accepts EMV® chip cards and Near Field Communication payments; Chip card reader, which accepts EMV® chip cards and enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Square Stand, which enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution; and Square Register that combines its hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology, as well as managed payments solutions.