Monness Crespi & Hardt Upgrades Block (NYSE:SQ) to Buy

Monness Crespi & Hardt upgraded shares of Block (NYSE:SQ) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Friday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Monness Crespi & Hardt currently has $115.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the stock. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Block from $100.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Block from $80.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $83.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Monday, November 11th. BMO Capital Markets lowered Block from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $94.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Needham & Company LLC increased their price target on Block from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty-four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Block presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $94.75.

Block Stock Down 2.3 %

Shares of SQ opened at $91.98 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $57.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.67, a PEG ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 2.50. Block has a 52 week low of $55.00 and a 52 week high of $99.26. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $81.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $70.57. The company has a quick ratio of 2.07, a current ratio of 2.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Insider Activity at Block

In other news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.00, for a total transaction of $33,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 90,460 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,060,820. This represents a 0.55 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Chrysty Esperanza sold 2,964 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.00, for a total transaction of $237,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 88,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,088,560. This trade represents a 3.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 31,918 shares of company stock valued at $2,666,147. 10.49% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Block

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SQ. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its position in shares of Block by 1.5% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Block by 1.6% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,690,075 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $581,923,000 after buying an additional 133,002 shares in the last quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC boosted its position in Block by 13.9% in 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 buying an additional 934,588 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Block by 2.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,202,388 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $147,846,000 after acquiring an additional 45,472 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Block by 17.8% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,157,733 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $139,143,000 after acquiring an additional 326,444 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.