Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC Lowers Position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC lessened its position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 27.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,581 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 1,735 shares during the quarter. Baker Tilly Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Block were worth $295,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Block during the fourth quarter valued at $528,996,000. Lone Pine Capital LLC raised its stake in Block by 70.0% during the fourth quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 6,606,269 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $510,995,000 after buying an additional 2,720,123 shares during the last quarter. Trivest Advisors Ltd purchased a new position in Block during the fourth quarter valued at $157,021,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Block by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,192,701 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,799,505,000 after buying an additional 1,277,043 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gladstone Capital Management LLP raised its stake in Block by 244.1% during the fourth quarter. Gladstone Capital Management LLP now owns 1,706,691 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $132,013,000 after buying an additional 1,210,758 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.44% of the company’s stock.

Block Price Performance

Shares of Block stock traded up $1.62 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $65.87. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,486,461 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,329,821. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $63.74 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $69.91. Block, Inc. has a 12-month low of $38.85 and a 12-month high of $87.52. The company has a market cap of $40.55 billion, a PE ratio of 85.55, a PEG ratio of 1.09 and a beta of 2.52. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $6.16 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.27 billion. Block had a return on equity of 3.77% and a net margin of 3.47%. The business’s revenue was up 11.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.40 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Block, Inc. will post 1.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.88, for a total value of $30,940.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 92,366 shares in the company, valued at $5,715,608.08. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $61.88, for a total value of $30,940.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 92,366 shares in the company, valued at $5,715,608.08. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Roelof Botha acquired 434,405 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 6th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $57.55 per share, for a total transaction of $25,000,007.75. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 434,405 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $25,000,007.75. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 25,005 shares of company stock worth $1,714,751. Corporate insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on SQ shares. Needham & Company LLC lowered their price objective on Block from $105.00 to $80.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 5th. Macquarie reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Block in a report on Friday, July 26th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Block from $95.00 to $85.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Block from $60.00 to $55.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their target price on Block from $82.00 to $74.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Block has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $86.20.

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.