Legal & General Group Plc Buys New Position in Block, Inc. $XYZ

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 182,210 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,939,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Baird Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,866,000. Brown Advisory Inc. acquired a new stake in Block during the second quarter valued at approximately $516,000. Jump Financial LLC bought a new stake in Block during the second quarter worth approximately $385,000. Federated Hermes Inc. bought a new stake in Block during the second quarter worth approximately $53,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC acquired a new position in Block in the second quarter worth approximately $1,861,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on XYZ. Clear Str raised Block to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. William Blair downgraded Block to a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 30th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Block in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Barclays started coverage on Block in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $100.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Block in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have issued a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Block currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.42.

Block Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:XYZ opened at $82.52 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $80.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $70.76. The company has a quick ratio of 2.21, a current ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Block, Inc. has a 12-month low of $48.21 and a 12-month high of $86.92. The company has a market cap of $49.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 147.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 2.52.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $1.02 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.54. Block had a return on equity of 8.10% and a net margin of 1.43%.The business had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.62 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Block has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.020-4.020 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.020-1.020 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 2.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 1,317 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.48, for a total value of $107,309.16. Following the transaction, the insider owned 460,128 shares in the company, valued at $37,491,229.44. This represents a 0.29% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,173 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.42, for a total value of $673,618.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 513,981 shares in the company, valued at $42,362,314.02. This represents a 1.57% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 372,006 shares of company stock valued at $29,736,461 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.37% 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.