Swiss National Bank Acquires 8,200 Shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Swiss National Bank grew its stake in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,651,886 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,200 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Block were worth $110,891,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new position in Block during the first quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new stake in Block during the second quarter valued at $34,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new stake in Block during the third quarter valued at $46,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Block during the second quarter valued at about $44,000. Finally, Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter worth about $49,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of Block in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Block from $71.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Block in a report on Friday. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $99.00 price objective on shares of Block in a report on Friday, August 2nd. Finally, UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Block from $100.00 to $92.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $91.30.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 1,406 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $64.70, for a total value of $90,968.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 90,960 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,885,112. This represents a 1.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,328 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $64.77, for a total transaction of $539,404.56. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 580,086 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,572,170.22. This represents a 1.42 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 28,678 shares of company stock valued at $1,924,112. Insiders own 10.49% of the company’s stock.

Block Trading Up 7.8 %

Shares of NYSE SQ opened at $90.84 on Tuesday. Block, Inc. has a 1 year low of $55.00 and a 1 year high of $91.83. The stock has a market cap of $55.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.14 and a beta of 2.48. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $71.53 and a 200 day moving average of $67.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 2.07 and a quick ratio of 2.07.

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.