Morgan Stanley Reaffirms “Equal Weight” Rating for Block (NYSE:XYZ)

Block (NYSE:XYZ)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating reaffirmed by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $80.00 target price on the technology company’s stock, down from their prior target price of $90.00. Morgan Stanley‘s price target would suggest a potential upside of 7.35% from the stock’s current price.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Block from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Craig Hallum assumed coverage on shares of Block in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Block from $105.00 to $106.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 2nd. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Block from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Benchmark upgraded shares of Block to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-nine have assigned a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $95.61.

Block Stock Down 2.5%

Block stock traded down $1.94 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $74.52. 314,963 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,114,839. The company has a current ratio of 2.21, a quick ratio of 2.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The stock has a market cap of $44.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 133.48, a P/E/G ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 2.55. Block has a 1-year low of $48.21 and a 1-year high of $86.92. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $78.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $75.63.

Block (NYSE:XYZ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The technology company reported $1.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.54. The company had revenue of $6.62 billion during the quarter. Block had a return on equity of 8.10% and a net margin of 1.43%. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.62 EPS. Block has set its FY 2026 guidance at 4.020-4.020 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 1.020-1.020 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Block will post 2.75 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 25,908 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.64, for a total transaction of $2,115,129.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 531,746 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,411,743.44. This represents a 4.65% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 9,511 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $82.43, for a total transaction of $783,991.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 423,262 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,889,486.66. This trade represents a 2.20% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 308,565 shares of company stock worth $24,873,186 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 11.37% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Block

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Block during the third quarter valued at approximately $247,000. Simplicity Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Block by 16.0% during the 3rd quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC now owns 4,694 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $345,000 after acquiring an additional 646 shares during the period. Gibbs Wealth Management boosted its stake in Block by 20.7% in the 3rd quarter. Gibbs Wealth Management now owns 11,753 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $864,000 after purchasing an additional 2,019 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Block by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 52,515 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $3,861,000 after acquiring an additional 806 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NovaPoint Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Block by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. NovaPoint Capital LLC now owns 3,630 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $267,000 after buying an additional 137 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

About Block

Block, Inc is a financial technology company that provides payments, commerce, and financial services through an ecosystem of business and consumer products. Formerly known as Square, the company was co-founded by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and changed its corporate name to Block in 2021.

Its Square ecosystem serves businesses with point-of-sale hardware, payment processing, invoicing, payroll, inventory management, customer engagement, online commerce, and other software tools. Block also offers lending and other financial services to eligible business customers through Square-related products.

For consumers, Block operates Cash App, a mobile financial services platform that supports services such as peer-to-peer payments, money transfers, a Cash App Card, direct deposit, investing, and bitcoin transactions, subject to product and geographic availability.