AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs Buys New Stake in Block, Inc. $XYZ

AG2R LA Mondiale Gestion D Actifs bought a new stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 23,607 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,604,000.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of XYZ. ARK Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Block during the second quarter valued at $210,016,000. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. bought a new position in Block during the second quarter valued at $204,223,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale bought a new position in Block during the second quarter valued at $36,353,000. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Block during the second quarter valued at $14,850,000. Finally, State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D bought a new position in Block during the second quarter valued at $12,826,000. Institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have commented on XYZ. Piper Sandler reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $58.00 price objective (up previously from $50.00) on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft set a $82.00 price objective on shares of Block and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Royal Bank Of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $97.00 price objective (up previously from $63.00) on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Block in a report on Friday. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Block from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 5th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Block presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.42.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 35,145 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total value of $2,811,600.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 535,896 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,871,680. This trade represents a 6.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 9,966 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.20, for a total transaction of $729,511.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 298,431 shares in the company, valued at $21,845,149.20. This represents a 3.23% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 123,041 shares of company stock worth $9,355,075 over the last ninety days. 10.85% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Block Price Performance

Block stock opened at $79.56 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $48.50 billion, a PE ratio of 17.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.24 and a beta of 2.71. Block, Inc. has a 12-month low of $44.27 and a 12-month high of $99.26. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $76.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $68.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.96, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The technology company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.41. The company had revenue of $6.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.32 billion. Block had a net margin of 12.32% and a return on equity of 7.85%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 2.54 EPS 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.