State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Acquires New Position in Block, Inc. $XYZ

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D acquired a new stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 188,814 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,826,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ARK Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $210,016,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $204,223,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale purchased a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $36,353,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $14,850,000. Finally, Otter Creek Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $4,404,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on XYZ. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price target on shares of Block from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 8th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Block from $73.00 to $77.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Block in a report on Friday, August 8th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $94.00 price target on shares of Block in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of Block from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Block currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.42.

Block Stock Performance

XYZ opened at $79.56 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The company has a market cap of $48.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.04, a PEG ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 2.71. The company’s 50 day moving average is $76.45 and its 200 day moving average is $68.39. Block, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.27 and a 12-month high of $99.26.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The technology company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.41. Block had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 7.85%. The company had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.32 billion. The business’s revenue was down 1.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Block

In other Block news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 1,050 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.77, for a total transaction of $78,508.50. Following the sale, the insider owned 253,956 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,988,290.12. This trade represents a 0.41% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 35,145 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $2,811,600.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 535,896 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,871,680. The trade was a 6.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 123,041 shares of company stock worth $9,355,075 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 10.85% 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.