CENTRAL TRUST Co Invests $240,000 in Block, Inc. $XYZ

CENTRAL TRUST Co bought a new stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 3,539 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in XYZ. S Bank Fund Management Ltd bought a new position in Block in the second quarter worth approximately $92,000. Praxis Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Block in the 2nd quarter worth $508,000. Nordea Investment Management AB bought a new position in Block in the 2nd quarter worth $3,105,000. SilverOak Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Block during the second quarter valued at $218,000. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA bought a new stake in Block during the second quarter valued at about $94,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently commented on XYZ shares. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on Block from $97.00 to $90.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 7th. BTIG Research reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Block in a report on Friday, November 7th. Bank of America decreased their target price on shares of Block from $94.00 to $86.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Macquarie lifted their price target on shares of Block from $50.00 to $67.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Block from $60.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating, ten have assigned a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $82.36.

Block Stock Performance

XYZ opened at $62.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 2.18 and a current ratio of 2.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.55, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 2.73. The company has a fifty day moving average of $74.86 and a 200 day moving average of $70.03. Block, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $44.27 and a fifty-two week high of $99.26.

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

Insider Activity at Block

In other Block news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 9,966 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owned 298,431 shares in the company, valued at $21,845,149.20. This trade represents a 3.23% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 3,609 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $73.20, for a total value of $264,178.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 127,212 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,311,918.40. The trade was a 2.76% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 115,441 shares of company stock valued at $8,778,247 in the last 90 days. 10.85% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.