Insider Selling: Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) CFO Sells 5,935 Shares of Stock

Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 5,935 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.53, for a total transaction of $388,920.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 255,496 shares in the company, valued at $16,742,652.88. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Amrita Ahuja also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, August 21st, Amrita Ahuja sold 6,661 shares of Block stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.70, for a total transaction of $430,966.70.
• On Monday, July 8th, Amrita Ahuja sold 1,147 shares of Block stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.57, for a total transaction of $76,355.79.

Block Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of SQ opened at $67.02 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $41.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 87.04, a PEG ratio of 0.87 and a beta of 2.49. Block, Inc. has a 12 month low of $38.85 and a 12 month high of $87.52. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $64.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $68.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $6.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.27 billion. Block had a net margin of 3.47% and a return on equity of 3.77%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.40 EPS. Analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on SQ shares. New Street Research assumed coverage on Block in a research report on Monday, September 9th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 price objective for the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Block from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Block in a report on Monday, June 24th. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Block from $100.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and set a $99.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.31.

Institutional Trading of Block

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Block by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,511,250 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,088,122,000 after buying an additional 318,549 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in shares of Block by 4.7% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,096,614 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,107,712,000 after acquiring an additional 582,826 shares during the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Block by 45.7% in the second quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 10,085,229 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $650,396,000 after acquiring an additional 3,163,975 shares during the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Block by 13.9% during the second quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 7,670,523 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $494,672,000 after purchasing an additional 934,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bares Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Block by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Bares Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,487,251 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $347,089,000 after purchasing an additional 87,826 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

About Block

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.