Tobam Boosts Stock Position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Tobam increased its holdings in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 15.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,988 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 520 shares during the period. Tobam’s holdings in Block were worth $268,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SQ. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Block by 45.7% during the second quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 10,085,229 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $650,396,000 after acquiring an additional 3,163,975 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Block by 3.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,192,701 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,799,505,000 after purchasing an additional 1,277,043 shares in the last quarter. Gladstone Capital Management LLP grew its holdings in shares of Block by 244.1% during the fourth quarter. Gladstone Capital Management LLP now owns 1,706,691 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $132,013,000 after buying an additional 1,210,758 shares in the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Block by 13.9% during the second quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 7,670,523 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $494,672,000 after buying an additional 934,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, D1 Capital Partners L.P. boosted its position in Block by 76.7% during the second quarter. D1 Capital Partners L.P. now owns 1,831,342 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $118,103,000 after acquiring an additional 795,000 shares during the last quarter. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Needham & Company LLC lowered their target price on Block from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, August 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods dropped their price target on shares of Block from $82.00 to $74.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $99.00 price objective on shares of Block in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $88.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, Macquarie reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, July 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $87.31.

Block Stock Performance

NYSE SQ opened at $70.02 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $64.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $67.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.82 and a quick ratio of 1.82. Block, Inc. has a 1 year low of $38.85 and a 1 year high of $87.52. The company has a market capitalization of $43.11 billion, a PE ratio of 54.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.91 and a beta of 2.49.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $6.16 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.27 billion. Block had a return on equity of 3.77% and a net margin of 3.47%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.40 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 1.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Block

In other news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 5,935 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.53, for a total transaction of $388,920.55. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 255,496 shares in the company, valued at $16,742,652.88. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 5,935 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.53, for a total transaction of $388,920.55. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 255,496 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,742,652.88. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 2,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total value of $175,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 92,048 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,443,360. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 27,714 shares of company stock worth $1,812,932. Company insiders own 10.49% 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.