Prospera Financial Services Inc Acquires Shares of 14,284 Block, Inc. $XYZ

Prospera Financial Services Inc acquired a new position in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 14,284 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $970,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. S Bank Fund Management Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Block in the second quarter worth $92,000. Praxis Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Block during the 2nd quarter worth $508,000. Nordea Investment Management AB acquired a new position in Block during the 2nd quarter worth $3,105,000. SilverOak Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter worth about $218,000. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter valued at about $94,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In other Block news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 10,424 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.20, for a total transaction of $763,036.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 263,507 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $19,288,712.40. The trade was a 3.81% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 9,966 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $73.20, for a total transaction of $729,511.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 298,431 shares in the company, valued at $21,845,149.20. The trade was a 3.23% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 119,041 shares of company stock valued at $9,052,531. Corporate insiders own 10.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on XYZ. Compass Point reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $65.00 price target (down previously from $80.00) on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on Block from $90.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 21st. Zacks Research lowered Block from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday. Mizuho upped their price target on Block from $71.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $82.58.

Block Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of Block stock opened at $65.61 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.23, a PEG ratio of 2.97 and a beta of 2.73. Block, Inc. has a twelve month low of $44.27 and a twelve month high of $99.26. The company has a current ratio of 2.18, a quick ratio of 2.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $75.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $70.08.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The technology company reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.29. Block had a return on equity of 7.41% and a net margin of 12.99%.The business had revenue of $6.11 billion during the quarter. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.53 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current 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.