Amrita Ahuja Sells 6,661 Shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) Stock

Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 6,661 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.70, for a total value of $430,966.70. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Amrita Ahuja also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, July 8th, Amrita Ahuja sold 1,147 shares of Block stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.57, for a total transaction of $76,355.79.
• On Tuesday, July 2nd, Amrita Ahuja sold 5,277 shares of Block stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.13, for a total transaction of $338,414.01.

Block Stock Up 2.3 %

NYSE SQ traded up $1.50 on Friday, reaching $65.34. 5,613,201 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,718,805. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a current ratio of 1.82. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $63.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $69.86. The company has a market cap of $40.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 85.09, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 2.52. Block, Inc. has a 12 month low of $38.85 and a 12 month high of $87.52.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $6.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.27 billion. Block had a return on equity of 3.77% and a net margin of 3.47%. Block’s revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.40 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 1.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Block by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 10,618 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $898,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the period. Financial Perspectives Inc increased its holdings in shares of Block by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc now owns 2,300 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $195,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the period. Valley National Advisers Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Block by 25.4% in the 1st quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 765 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 155 shares during the period. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Block by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,831 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $409,000 after acquiring an additional 157 shares during the period. Finally, CAP Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Block by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. CAP Partners LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $403,000 after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the period. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on SQ. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $88.00 price target on shares of Block in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Block in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Macquarie reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Block in a report on Friday, July 26th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Block from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Block from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Block presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $86.59.

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.