Contrasting Block (XYZ) and Its Peers

Block (NYSE:XYZ) is one of 340 publicly-traded companies in the “Financial Services” industry, but how does it weigh in compared to its competitors? We will compare Block to related businesses based on the strength of its valuation, dividends, earnings, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Block and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Block	1	10	34	2	2.79
Block Competitors	1986	6966	11751	446	2.50

Block currently has a consensus target price of $100.32, indicating a potential upside of 17.00%. As a group, “Financial Services” companies have a potential downside of 9.04%. Given Block’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Block is more favorable than its competitors.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Block and its competitors top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Block	$24.19 billion	$1.31 billion	115.87
Block Competitors	$6.38 billion	$1.10 billion	9.82

Block has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. Block is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Profitability

This table compares Block and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Block	1.80%	9.63%	5.34%
Block Competitors	-276.94%	-40.55%	-5.83%

Risk & Volatility

Block has a beta of 2.58, suggesting that its share price is 158% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Block’s competitors have a beta of 2.51, suggesting that their average share price is 151% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

70.4% of Block shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 43.0% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are owned by institutional investors. 11.4% of Block shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 21.7% of shares of all “Financial Services” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Block beats its competitors on 12 of the 13 factors compared.

About Block

Block, Inc. is a financial technology company that provides payment and commerce tools to businesses and financial services for consumers. Its products include Square, a platform offering payment processing, point-of-sale software and related business services, and Cash App, which provides person-to-person payments and other financial features. The company also owns Afterpay, a buy-now, pay-later service, and TIDAL, a music and entertainment platform. Block serves businesses and consumers in the United States and other markets, with product availability varying by country.