ST Germain D J Co. Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

ST Germain D J Co. Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 0.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 106,914 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 263 shares during the quarter. ST Germain D J Co. Inc.’s holdings in Block were worth $7,177,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC raised its position in Block by 1.3% during the first quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 10,618 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $898,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc lifted its stake in shares of Block by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. Financial Perspectives Inc now owns 2,300 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $195,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the last quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. raised its position in Block by 25.4% in the first quarter. Valley National Advisers Inc. now owns 765 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $64,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the period. CAP Partners LLC lifted its stake in Block by 3.5% during the first quarter. CAP Partners LLC now owns 4,765 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $403,000 after purchasing an additional 163 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Block by 17.0% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,129 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $95,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Roelof Botha bought 434,405 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $57.55 per share, with a total value of $25,000,007.75. Following the transaction, the director now owns 434,405 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,000,007.75. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Block news, Director Roelof Botha bought 434,405 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 6th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $57.55 per share, with a total value of $25,000,007.75. Following the transaction, the director now owns 434,405 shares in the company, valued at $25,000,007.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 92,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,715,608.08. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 25,214 shares of company stock valued at $1,637,932. Insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on Block from $93.00 to $92.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Block from $100.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $88.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Block from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $88.79.

Block Trading Up 1.3 %

NYSE SQ traded up $0.98 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $74.66. 4,293,354 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,094,713. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.96 billion, a PE ratio of 58.34, a PEG ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 2.49. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $66.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $67.29. Block, Inc. has a 1-year low of $38.85 and a 1-year high of $87.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.82 and a current ratio of 1.82.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The technology company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $6.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.40 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Block, Inc. will post 1.71 earnings per share 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.