Block (NYSE:SQ) Given “Outperform” Rating at William Blair

William Blair reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Block (NYSE:SQ) in a research note issued to investors on Friday,RTT News reports.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on SQ. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Block from $100.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Block from $93.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on Block from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Macquarie restated an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $99.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $91.30.

Block Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE SQ opened at $84.30 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.07, a current ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $70.94 and its 200-day moving average price is $67.36. Block has a 52-week low of $55.00 and a 52-week high of $90.00. The company has a market cap of $51.90 billion, a PE ratio of 47.36, a PEG ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 2.48.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,328 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.77, for a total value of $539,404.56. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 580,086 shares in the company, valued at $37,572,170.22. The trade was a 1.42 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 1,406 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.70, for a total transaction of $90,968.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 90,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,885,112. The trade was a 1.52 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,678 shares of company stock worth $1,924,112 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Block

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SQ. National Pension Service raised its stake in shares of Block by 13.5% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 1,083,113 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $72,709,000 after acquiring an additional 128,832 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its position in Block by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 10,233,102 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $686,948,000 after purchasing an additional 147,873 shares during the period. Lone Pine Capital LLC lifted its stake in Block by 13.9% in the second quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 7,670,523 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $494,672,000 after purchasing an additional 934,588 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in shares of Block by 2.7% during the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 541,204 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $35,969,000 after buying an additional 14,163 shares during the period. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden grew its stake in shares of Block by 11.5% during the third quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 115,900 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,780,000 after buying an additional 12,000 shares during the last quarter. 70.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.