Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) Stake Boosted by SeaBridge Investment Advisors LLC

SeaBridge Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 373.0% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 41,568 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 32,780 shares during the quarter. SeaBridge Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Block were worth $3,516,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in SQ. Montag A & Associates Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Block by 843.2% during the fourth quarter. Montag A & Associates Inc. now owns 349 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 312 shares during the last quarter. Riverview Trust Co bought a new position in Block in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Front Row Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Block by 67,500.0% in the 3rd quarter. Front Row Advisors LLC now owns 676 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 675 shares in the last quarter. Tidemark LLC bought a new position in Block in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, YHB Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in Block in the 1st quarter worth approximately $33,000. 70.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Block Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of SQ traded up $1.34 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $65.78. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 5,387,060 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,092,967. The business has a fifty day moving average of $67.01 and a 200 day moving average of $71.33. The company has a market cap of $40.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 83.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 2.52. Block, Inc. has a 1 year low of $38.85 and a 1 year high of $87.52. The company has a quick ratio of 1.64, a current ratio of 1.64 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The technology company reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.32. The company had revenue of $5.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.75 billion. Block had a return on equity of 2.04% and a net margin of 2.18%. As a group, analysts forecast that Block, Inc. will post 1.28 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on SQ shares. Wolfe Research increased their price objective on Block from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $99.00 price objective on shares of Block in a report on Friday, May 3rd. TD Cowen increased their price objective on Block from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. KeyCorp increased their price objective on Block from $80.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Wednesday, June 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $87.13.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.13, for a total value of $338,414.01. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 274,410 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,597,913.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 5,277 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.13, for a total value of $338,414.01. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 274,410 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,597,913.30. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 5,155 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.26, for a total transaction of $367,345.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 599,150 shares in the company, valued at $42,695,429. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 134,526 shares of company stock worth $9,111,866 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 10.49% 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.