Salem Investment Counselors Inc. Sells 6,150 Shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Salem Investment Counselors Inc. lessened its stake in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 54.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,176 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 6,150 shares during the quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Block were worth $438,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. &PARTNERS grew its holdings in Block by 8.3% during the first quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 8,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $731,000 after purchasing an additional 659 shares during the period. Sanders Morris Harris LLC increased its holdings in shares of Block by 11.4% during the 1st quarter. Sanders Morris Harris LLC now owns 4,870 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $412,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. Executive Wealth Group LLC acquired a new stake in Block during the 1st quarter valued at $381,000. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp bought a new position in Block during the first quarter worth $2,487,000. Finally, RFG Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Block in the first quarter valued at $858,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $99.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Needham & Company LLC increased their price objective on shares of Block from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Block from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.59.

Block Price Performance

SQ stock traded up $0.23 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $62.97. 7,967,153 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,578,993. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $68.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $71.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 81.78, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 2.54. Block, Inc. has a 12 month low of $38.85 and a 12 month high of $87.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.64 and a quick ratio of 1.64.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The technology company reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.32. Block had a net margin of 2.18% and a return on equity of 2.04%. The business had revenue of $5.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.75 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Block, Inc. will post 1.28 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In related news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.75, for a total value of $42,375.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 68,323 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,790,374.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 4,170 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.84, for a total transaction of $328,762.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 193,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,231,257.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.75, for a total transaction of $42,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 68,323 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,790,374.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 247,739 shares of company stock valued at $18,584,747 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

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.