Needham & Company LLC Reiterates “Buy” Rating for Block (NYSE:XYZ)

Block (NYSE:XYZ)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities researchers at Needham & Company LLC in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $90.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock. Needham & Company LLC’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 31.69% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on XYZ. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Block from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Block from $60.00 to $65.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Block from $100.00 to $112.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Macquarie lifted their price target on shares of Block from $100.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price objective on shares of Block from $100.00 to $87.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty-six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Block has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.23.

Block Trading Down 17.7 %

NYSE XYZ opened at $68.34 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $42.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.02, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a current ratio of 2.07. Block has a 12 month low of $55.00 and a 12 month high of $99.26.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The technology company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.11). The company 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 5.80% and a net margin of 11.92%. Analysts predict that Block will post 2.54 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,502 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.52, for a total value of $129,953.04. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 242,199 shares in the company, valued at $20,955,057.48. The trade was a 0.62 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 2,044 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.72, for a total value of $177,255.68. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 83,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,281,531.52. This represents a 2.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 9,247 shares of company stock worth $832,865. 10.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Block

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Southpoint Capital Advisors LP acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the third quarter worth $114,121,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Block by 770.0% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 1,738,708 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $116,719,000 after acquiring an additional 1,538,849 shares in the last quarter. Woodson Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in Block during the 3rd quarter worth about $27,255,000. Azora Capital LP boosted its position in Block by 358.4% during the 3rd quarter. Azora Capital LP now owns 503,402 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $33,793,000 after acquiring an additional 393,593 shares during the period. Finally, Graypoint LLC purchased a new position in Block during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,445,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.