HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 12,982 Shares of Block, Inc. $XYZ

HighTower Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) by 18.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 58,315 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 12,982 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Block were worth $3,796,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of XYZ. Baird Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,866,000. Brown Advisory Inc. bought a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at $516,000. Jump Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at $385,000. Federated Hermes Inc. bought a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at $53,000. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Block during the 2nd quarter valued at $1,861,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Block news, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value of $225,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 268,169 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,112,675. This represents a 1.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 1,316 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.54, for a total value of $90,198.64. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 479,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $32,876,033.48. The trade was a 0.27% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 49,485 shares of company stock worth $3,573,346. 11.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Block Price Performance

Shares of Block stock opened at $75.69 on Friday. Block, Inc. has a one year low of $48.21 and a one year high of $82.50. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $66.96 and its 200 day moving average is $63.79. The stock has a market cap of $45.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 59.14, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 2.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a current ratio of 1.99.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The technology company reported $0.85 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.55. Block had a return on equity of 7.02% and a net margin of 3.30%.The company had revenue of $6.06 billion for the quarter. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.56 earnings per share. Block’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Block has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.860-0.860 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.850-3.850 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Block, Inc. will post 2.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

XYZ has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald increased their price target on Block from $78.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Block in a report on Friday, May 8th. Rothschild & Co Redburn raised Block from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the company from $45.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 18th. HSBC upgraded Block from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $70.00 to $77.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Arete Research raised Block from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Block has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $85.12.

About Block

Block (NYSE:XYZ) is a financial technology company that builds products and services to facilitate electronic payments, commerce, and consumer finance. Its principal business lines include a seller-focused ecosystem that provides point-of-sale hardware and software, payment processing, invoicing, payroll and lending services, and a consumer-facing platform that offers peer-to-peer payments, banking-like features, and investing. Block’s portfolio also encompasses music streaming and buy-now-pay-later capabilities through businesses acquired to broaden its reach beyond core payments.

The company was founded as Square in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and later rebranded to Block to reflect a diversified set of businesses across payments, consumer finance, and emerging technologies.