Chrysty Esperanza Sells 3,000 Shares of Block (NYSE:XYZ) Stock

Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $225,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 268,169 shares in the company, valued at $20,112,675. This trade represents a 1.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Block Price Performance

Shares of XYZ stock opened at $69.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 2.20 and a quick ratio of 2.20. The company has a market capitalization of $41.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.31, a P/E/G ratio of 1.13 and a beta of 2.61. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $60.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $64.73. Block, Inc. has a one year low of $44.27 and a one year high of $82.50.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.26 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $6.25 billion for the quarter. Block had a net margin of 5.40% and a return on equity of 6.66%. Block’s revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Block, Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Block from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $72.00 to $93.00 in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Truist Financial upgraded shares of Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $72.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Block from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $83.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded shares of Block from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Wednesday, March 18th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their target price on shares of Block from $91.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Block currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $82.67.

Institutional Trading of Block

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Cromwell Holdings LLC bought a new stake in Block during the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. City Holding Co. bought a new stake in Block during the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new stake in Block during the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. RMG Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Block during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC bought a new stake in Block during the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. Institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

About Block

Block (NYSE:XYZ) is a financial technology company that builds products and services to facilitate electronic payments, commerce, and consumer finance. Its principal business lines include a seller-focused ecosystem that provides point-of-sale hardware and software, payment processing, invoicing, payroll and lending services, and a consumer-facing platform that offers peer-to-peer payments, banking-like features, and investing. Block’s portfolio also encompasses music streaming and buy-now-pay-later capabilities through businesses acquired to broaden its reach beyond core payments.

The company was founded as Square in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and later rebranded to Block to reflect a diversified set of businesses across payments, consumer finance, and emerging technologies.