Block (NYSE:SQ) PT Raised to $98.00 at Robert W. Baird

Block (NYSE:SQ) had its price objective lifted by Robert W. Baird from $95.00 to $98.00 in a report issued on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an outperform rating on the technology company’s stock.

SQ has been the topic of several other research reports. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Block from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. BTIG Research upgraded shares of Block from a neutral rating to a buy rating and set a $85.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt upped their price objective on shares of Block from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Morgan Stanley reiterated an underweight rating and issued a $60.00 price objective (down previously from $62.00) on shares of Block in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Block from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $85.67.

Block Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of NYSE:SQ opened at $71.61 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90. The company has a market cap of $44.09 billion, a PE ratio of 414.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 2.55. Block has a 52 week low of $38.85 and a 52 week high of $87.52. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $76.81 and a 200 day simple moving average of $66.58.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The technology company reported $0.03 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $5.77 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.69 billion. Block had a net margin of 0.04% and a return on equity of 0.63%. As a group, research analysts expect that Block will post 1.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In other Block news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 656 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.30, for a total value of $42,180.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 68,823 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,425,318.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Block news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 656 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.30, for a total value of $42,180.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 68,823 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,425,318.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 127,800 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.45, for a total transaction of $8,364,510.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 405,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,521,910.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 363,801 shares of company stock valued at $27,284,175 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 10.79% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Block

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Block by 3.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,192,701 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,799,505,000 after acquiring an additional 1,277,043 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Block by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 12,513,788 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $967,942,000 after acquiring an additional 212,218 shares during the period. ARK Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Block by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 11,887,628 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $919,508,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000,514 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Block by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 10,377,973 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $802,736,000 after acquiring an additional 75,161 shares during the period. Finally, Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Block by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Nikko Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 8,982,862 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $694,735,000 after acquiring an additional 71,735 shares during the period. 70.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Block

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.