Block (NYSE:XYZ) Upgraded to Overweight at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Block (NYSE:XYZ - Free Report) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a report issued on Thursday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $67.00 target price on the technology company's stock, up from their previous target price of $65.00.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on XYZ. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $110.00 price target on shares of Block in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Block from $98.00 to $97.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised Block from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $115.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Oppenheimer raised Block from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $115.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Block from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $87.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Block has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $93.75.

Block Stock Performance

XYZ traded down $0.35 during trading on Thursday, hitting $50.12. 4,399,700 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,718,956. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 2.07 and a current ratio of 2.07. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $68.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.77. Block has a 1 year low of $46.42 and a 1 year high of $99.26.

Block (NYSE:XYZ - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 20th. The technology company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.11). The firm had revenue of $6.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.23 billion. Block had a net margin of 11.92% and a return on equity of 5.80%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Block will post 2.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.48, for a total transaction of $27,240.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 81,999 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,467,305.52. This trade represents a 0.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 6,345 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.32, for a total value of $446,180.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 235,854 shares in the company, valued at approximately $16,585,253.28. This represents a 2.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 19,324 shares of company stock valued at $1,297,662 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 10.49% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Block

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of XYZ. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its holdings in Block by 183.8% in the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 9,154 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $778,000 after purchasing an additional 5,929 shares during the period. Guerra Pan Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Block in the 4th quarter worth $211,000. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC acquired a new position in Block during the fourth quarter worth $3,775,000. Toth Financial Advisory Corp lifted its holdings in Block by 18,150.0% during the fourth quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 7,300 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $620,000 after purchasing an additional 7,260 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nepsis Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the fourth quarter valued at about $9,769,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.44% of the company's stock.

Block Company Profile

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.