Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Block (NYSE:XYZ)

Block (NYSE:XYZ)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $110.00 target price on the technology company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 60.96% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on XYZ. Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded Block from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $115.00 price target on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their price target on Block from $105.00 to $100.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Block from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Macquarie increased their price target on Block from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut Block from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $94.00 to $100.00 in a report on Monday, November 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty-six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.23.

Block Price Performance

NYSE:XYZ opened at $68.34 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $42.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.39, a PEG ratio of 0.73 and a beta of 2.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 2.07. Block has a fifty-two week low of $55.00 and a fifty-two week high of $99.26.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The technology company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.11). The business had revenue of $6.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.23 billion. Block had a return on equity of 5.24% and a net margin of 4.73%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Block will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 2,044 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.72, for a total transaction of $177,255.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 83,966 shares in the company, valued at $7,281,531.52. This represents a 2.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 2,865 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total value of $272,175.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 85,235 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,097,325. This represents a 3.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,247 shares of company stock valued at $832,865 over the last quarter. 10.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Block

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in XYZ. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its holdings in Block by 183.8% in the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 9,154 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $778,000 after purchasing an additional 5,929 shares in the last quarter. Guerra Pan Advisors LLC bought a new position in Block in the fourth quarter worth $211,000. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC bought a new position in Block in the fourth quarter worth $3,775,000. Toth Financial Advisory Corp raised its holdings in Block by 18,150.0% in the fourth quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 7,300 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $620,000 after purchasing an additional 7,260 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nepsis Inc. bought a new position in Block in the fourth quarter worth $9,769,000. Institutional investors own 70.44% 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.