Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. Makes New $187,000 Investment in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Point72 Asia Singapore Pte. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 2,898 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $187,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Riverview Trust Co purchased a new stake in Block in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. YHB Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Block in the 1st quarter valued at $33,000. Vima LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. LRI Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Block during the first quarter worth $34,000. Finally, Unique Wealth Strategies LLC acquired a new position in Block during the second quarter valued at $34,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Macquarie reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, July 26th. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on Block in a research report on Tuesday. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $88.00 price target on shares of Block in a report on Friday, August 2nd. New Street Research started coverage on shares of Block in a report on Monday, September 9th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $70.00 target price for the company. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Block from $90.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.34.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In other news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,147 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.57, for a total transaction of $76,355.79. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 271,394 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,066,698.58. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 2,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.00, for a total transaction of $175,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 92,048 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,443,360. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 1,147 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $66.57, for a total transaction of $76,355.79. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 271,394 shares in the company, valued at $18,066,698.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 20,542 shares of company stock worth $1,343,635 in the last three months. 10.49% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Block Stock Performance

SQ opened at $65.04 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.04 billion, a PE ratio of 84.47, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 2.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.82, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Block, Inc. has a twelve month low of $38.85 and a twelve month high of $87.52. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $63.91 and its 200 day moving average price is $68.23.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $6.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.40 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 11.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 1.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.