Needham & Company LLC Boosts Block (NYSE:SQ) Price Target to $105.00

Block (NYSE:SQ) had its target price boosted by Needham & Company LLC from $95.00 to $105.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on SQ. Susquehanna restated a positive rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Block from $90.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Block from $77.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Wedbush reiterated an outperform rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on Block from $76.00 to $86.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Monday, February 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $87.55.

Block Stock Performance

SQ traded up $4.06 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $73.53. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 11,553,092 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,201,752. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $77.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $68.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.27 billion, a PE ratio of 94.08, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 2.57. Block has a fifty-two week low of $38.85 and a fifty-two week high of $87.52.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The technology company reported $0.03 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $5.77 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.69 billion. Block had a net margin of 2.18% and a return on equity of 2.07%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Block will post 1.29 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Block

In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 127,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.45, for a total transaction of $8,364,510.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 405,224 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,521,910.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 127,800 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.45, for a total value of $8,364,510.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 405,224 shares in the company, valued at $26,521,910.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 656 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.30, for a total transaction of $42,180.80. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 68,823 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,425,318.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 477,469 shares of company stock worth $34,963,585. Insiders own 10.79% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. WBI Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Block in the 1st quarter valued at $349,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP grew its stake in Block by 55.9% in the first quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 16,124 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,364,000 after acquiring an additional 5,783 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S grew its stake in Block by 1.6% in the first quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 19,453 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,645,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Block by 240.9% in the first quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 127,001 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $10,741,000 after acquiring an additional 89,744 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Block by 3.8% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 38,862 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,253,000 after purchasing an additional 1,438 shares during the period. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.