TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. Increases Stock Position in Block, Inc. $XYZ

TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. raised its holdings in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) by 629.7% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 27,358 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 23,609 shares during the quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc.’s holdings in Block were worth $1,781,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cibc World Market Inc. boosted its holdings in Block by 24.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 179,271 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $12,956,000 after purchasing an additional 34,678 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd purchased a new stake in Block in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $5,383,000. New York Life Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Block in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $5,400,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Block by 2,385.3% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 612,358 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $44,255,000 after purchasing an additional 587,719 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hartford Investment Management Co. purchased a new stake in Block in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,323,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Block Trading Down 3.5%

Shares of Block 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. Block, Inc. has a 1 year low of $44.27 and a 1 year high of $82.50. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $60.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.73.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen lowered Block from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 19th. Morgan Stanley raised Block from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $72.00 to $93.00 in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Piper Sandler decreased their price target on Block from $55.00 to $51.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. BNP Paribas Exane raised Block from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $83.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 7th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Block from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Block has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $82.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 10,349 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.00, for a total transaction of $517,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 503,784 shares in the company, valued at $25,189,200. The trade was a 2.01% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 30,919 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $2,318,925.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 500,816 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,561,200. This represents a 5.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 49,725 shares of company stock valued at $3,401,393. 10.85% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Block Company Profile

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.