CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co Increases Stock Holdings in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co increased its position in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 2.9% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 301,289 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,404 shares during the quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co’s holdings in Block were worth $25,497,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of SQ. Bares Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Block by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Bares Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,487,251 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $347,089,000 after acquiring an additional 87,826 shares during the last quarter. Trivest Advisors Ltd acquired a new position in Block in the 4th quarter valued at about $157,021,000. IFG Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Block in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $213,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Block by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 36,192,701 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,799,505,000 after acquiring an additional 1,277,043 shares in the last quarter. Finally, &PARTNERS increased its position in shares of Block by 8.3% during the first quarter. &PARTNERS now owns 8,641 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $731,000 after acquiring an additional 659 shares during the period. 70.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Canaccord Genuity Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $95.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of Block from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Block from $82.00 to $74.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price target on Block from $99.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty-eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.25.

Block Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE SQ opened at $61.58 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 1.64 and a quick ratio of 1.64. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $65.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $70.48. Block, Inc. has a 12-month low of $38.85 and a 12-month high of $87.52. The company has a market capitalization of $38.00 billion, a PE ratio of 79.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 2.52.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last posted 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 firm had revenue of $5.96 billion for 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%. Equities analysts anticipate that Block, Inc. will post 1.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 5,155 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.26, for a total value of $367,345.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 599,150 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,695,429. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 5,155 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.26, for a total value of $367,345.30. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 599,150 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,695,429. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 6,788 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.26, for a total transaction of $483,712.88. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 282,886 shares in the company, valued at $20,158,456.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 138,173 shares of company stock valued at $9,363,222 over the last 90 days. 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.