Blair William & Co. IL Decreases Holdings in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Blair William & Co. IL lowered its holdings in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 7.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 206,462 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 16,033 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Block were worth $13,315,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SQ. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its position in Block by 2.8% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 57,947 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,737,000 after buying an additional 1,603 shares during the period. Pitti Group Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Block by 6.8% in the 2nd quarter. Pitti Group Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,739 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $306,000 after purchasing an additional 301 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Block by 37.6% in the second quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 4,833 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $312,000 after purchasing an additional 1,321 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Block by 17.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,157,733 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $139,143,000 after purchasing an additional 326,444 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Angeles Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Block by 2.4% during the second quarter. Angeles Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,377 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $476,000 after purchasing an additional 176 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SQ has been the topic of several recent research reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $88.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $99.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. William Blair upgraded shares of Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $100.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Monday, June 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.34.

Block Price Performance

Block stock opened at $68.64 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 89.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.15 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 company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.82 and a quick ratio of 1.82. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $64.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $69.11.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $6.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.27 billion. Block had a net margin of 3.47% and a return on equity of 3.77%. Block’s revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.40 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 471 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total transaction of $30,318.27. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 92,866 shares in the company, valued at $5,977,784.42. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 6,661 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.70, for a total transaction of $430,966.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 264,697 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,125,895.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 471 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.37, for a total value of $30,318.27. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 92,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,977,784.42. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,179 shares of company stock valued at $1,833,962 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Block Company 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.