Block (NYSE:XYZ) Sets New 1-Year Low - Here's What Happened

Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ - Get Free Report)'s stock price reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $52.25 and last traded at $52.68, with a volume of 993095 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $55.33.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

XYZ has been the topic of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Block from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $100.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Monday, February 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Block from $94.00 to $74.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Block from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $87.00 to $80.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Raymond James reduced their price target on Block from $115.00 to $103.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt raised Block from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $115.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-seven have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Block presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $94.46.

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Block Stock Performance

The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $70.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 2.07. The firm has a market cap of $31.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.77.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 value of $27,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 81,999 shares in the company, valued at $4,467,305.52. This trade represents a 0.61 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 4,520 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.32, for a total value of $317,846.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 551,850 shares in the company, valued at $38,806,092. This represents a 0.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 16,085 shares of company stock valued at $1,115,663. Insiders own 10.49% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Block

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $778,000 after buying an additional 5,929 shares during the period. Guerra Pan Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Block during the 4th quarter worth approximately $211,000. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC purchased a new position in Block in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,775,000. Toth Financial Advisory Corp boosted its holdings in Block by 18,150.0% in the 4th quarter. Toth Financial Advisory Corp now owns 7,300 shares of the technology company's stock worth $620,000 after acquiring an additional 7,260 shares during the period. Finally, Nepsis Inc. acquired a new stake in Block in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $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.