Canaccord Genuity Group Lowers Block (NYSE:XYZ) Price Target to $100.00

Block (NYSE:XYZ) had its target price dropped by investment analysts at Canaccord Genuity Group from $120.00 to $100.00 in a research report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the technology company’s stock. Canaccord Genuity Group’s target price points to a potential upside of 46.33% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Block from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Block from $100.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Oppenheimer raised shares of Block from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised shares of Block from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $115.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Block in a report on Friday, November 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty-six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.23.

Block Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:XYZ opened at $68.34 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.07, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.02, a P/E/G ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.52. Block has a fifty-two week low of $55.00 and a fifty-two week high of $99.26.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The technology company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $6.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.23 billion. Block had a return on equity of 5.80% and a net margin of 11.92%. On average, analysts predict that Block will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Block news, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 2,836 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $89.38, for a total value of $253,481.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 195,449 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,469,231.62. This represents a 1.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,502 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.52, for a total value of $129,953.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 242,199 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,955,057.48. This represents a 0.62 % decrease in their position. 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. Insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Block

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its stake in shares of Block by 183.8% during the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 9,154 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $778,000 after purchasing an additional 5,929 shares during the period. Guerra Pan Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Block in the fourth quarter worth $211,000. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC purchased a new stake in Block in the fourth quarter worth $3,775,000. Toth Financial Advisory Corp lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 7,260 shares during the period. Finally, Nepsis Inc. purchased a new stake in Block in the fourth quarter worth $9,769,000. 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.