Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 3,539 Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 3,539 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $274,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Front Row Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Block by 67,500.0% in the 3rd quarter. Front Row Advisors LLC now owns 676 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 675 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Block by 38.4% in the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 728 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 202 shares during the period. Headinvest LLC bought a new position in shares of Block during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $44,000. CNB Bank lifted its position in shares of Block by 40.2% during the 3rd quarter. CNB Bank now owns 1,046 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Finally, Valley National Advisers Inc. lifted its position in shares of Block by 72.3% during the 4th quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 610 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 256 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Block Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE SQ traded down $0.14 during trading on Thursday, hitting $71.00. 416,919 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,006,575. The business’s fifty day moving average is $77.49 and its 200 day moving average is $68.73. Block, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $38.85 and a fifty-two week high of $87.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 92.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 2.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a current ratio of 1.90.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The technology company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $5.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.69 billion. Block had a net margin of 2.18% and a return on equity of 2.07%. Equities research analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 1.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on SQ. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Block from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Block from $86.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Wedbush reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, May 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Block from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Block in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $87.55.

Insider Transactions at Block

In other news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 113,668 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.56, for a total transaction of $7,679,410.08. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 603,861 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,796,849.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 113,668 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.56, for a total value of $7,679,410.08. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 603,861 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,796,849.16. 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 656 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.30, for a total transaction 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 $4,425,318.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 477,469 shares of company stock valued at $34,963,585 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 10.79% of the company’s stock.

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.