Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms "Outperform" Rating for Block (NYSE:XYZ)

Block (NYSE:XYZ - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "outperform" rating restated by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $110.00 target price on the technology company's stock. Royal Bank of Canada's price objective would indicate a potential upside of 66.84% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on XYZ. Barclays increased their target price on Block from $100.00 to $112.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Needham & Company LLC upped their price objective on shares of Block from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Monness Crespi & Hardt raised shares of Block from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and set a $115.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Oppenheimer raised shares of Block from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $115.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on Block from $90.00 to $108.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and twenty-five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $96.31.

Block Stock Performance

Shares of XYZ stock traded down $2.42 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $65.93. 16,940,969 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,084,926. The company has a market cap of $40.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.72 and a beta of 2.53. The company has a quick ratio of 2.07, a current ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Block has a fifty-two week low of $55.00 and a fifty-two week high of $99.26.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 2,865 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total transaction of $272,175.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 85,235 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,097,325. This represents a 3.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,502 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $86.52, for a total value of $129,953.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 242,199 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,955,057.48. This represents a 0.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 9,247 shares of company stock worth $832,865. 10.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management grew its holdings in Block by 183.8% during 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 position in shares of Block during the 4th quarter valued at about $211,000. Moody Lynn & Lieberson LLC bought a new position in shares of Block during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,775,000. Toth Financial Advisory Corp increased 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Nepsis Inc. bought a new stake in Block during the 4th quarter worth approximately $9,769,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company's stock.

About Block

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.