Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates “Outperform” Rating for Block (NYSE:SQ)

Royal Bank of Canada reissued their outperform rating on shares of Block (NYSE:SQ) in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $88.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Block from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $99.00 target price on shares of Block in a report on Friday, August 2nd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Block from $93.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on Block from $82.00 to $74.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 8th. Finally, 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 research note on Monday, August 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Block has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $88.79.

Block Price Performance

Shares of SQ opened at $72.52 on Monday. 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 has a 1-year low of $38.85 and a 1-year high of $87.52. The stock has a market cap of $44.75 billion, a PE ratio of 94.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 2.49. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $66.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.11.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of Block stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.88, for a total transaction of $30,940.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 92,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,715,608.08. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $61.88, for a total transaction of $30,940.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 92,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,715,608.08. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 5,935 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.53, for a total transaction of $388,920.55. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 255,496 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $16,742,652.88. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 25,214 shares of company stock worth $1,637,932 in the last quarter. 10.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of SQ. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Block by 0.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,511,250 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,088,122,000 after purchasing an additional 318,549 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in Block by 4.7% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 13,096,614 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,107,712,000 after purchasing an additional 582,826 shares in the last quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its position in Block by 45.7% in the second quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 10,085,229 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $650,396,000 after purchasing an additional 3,163,975 shares during the period. Lone Pine Capital LLC boosted its stake in Block by 13.9% during the 2nd quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 7,670,523 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $494,672,000 after purchasing an additional 934,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Block by 17.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,157,733 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $139,143,000 after purchasing an additional 326,444 shares during the period. 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.