Block, Inc. $XYZ Stake Lessened by GC Wealth Management RIA LLC

Key Points

• GC Wealth Management RIA LLC cut its stake in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ) by 21.1% in Q4, selling 16,457 shares and finishing the period with 61,523 shares valued at $4.005 million.
• Major institutions added to positions—Vanguard increased its stake to 67,626,485 shares (+23.1%), while Capital World Investors and Sands Capital also made large purchases—resulting in 70.44% institutional ownership.
• Insiders have been net sellers recently: CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 30,919 shares under a Rule 10b5‑1 plan, insiders sold 49,725 shares in the last 90 days, and insiders now own about 10.49% of the company.

GC Wealth Management RIA LLC cut its stake in Block, Inc. (NYSE:XYZ - Free Report) by 21.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 61,523 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 16,457 shares during the period. GC Wealth Management RIA LLC's holdings in Block were worth $4,005,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Block by 23.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,626,485 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $4,887,366,000 after acquiring an additional 12,709,824 shares in the last quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Block by 12.2% during the third quarter. Sands Capital Management LLC now owns 11,603,057 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $838,553,000 after purchasing an additional 1,262,317 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in Block by 192.7% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 11,296,224 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $816,378,000 after purchasing an additional 7,436,380 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Block during the second quarter valued at approximately $535,305,000. Finally, Viking Global Investors LP acquired a new stake in Block during the second quarter valued at approximately $368,213,000. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Block

In related news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 30,919 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total transaction of $2,318,925.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 500,816 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $37,561,200. The trade was a 5.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Owen Britton Jennings sold 3,555 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.41, for a total transaction of $225,422.55. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 231,262 shares in the company, valued at $14,664,323.42. The trade was a 1.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 49,725 shares of company stock valued at $3,401,393. Company insiders own 10.49% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Block from $105.00 to $85.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods cut their target price on shares of Block from $90.00 to $85.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 2nd. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Block from $55.00 to $51.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 14th. Needham & Company LLC increased their target price on shares of Block from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Raymond James Financial raised shares of Block to a "moderate buy" rating in a research note on Friday, February 27th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-seven have assigned a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $82.78.

Block Stock Performance

Shares of Block stock opened at $69.53 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $41.65 billion, a PE ratio of 33.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 2.61. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $62.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $64.37. The company has a quick ratio of 2.20, a current ratio of 2.20 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Block, Inc. has a 12 month low of $44.27 and a 12 month high of $82.50.

Block (NYSE:XYZ - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The technology company reported $0.65 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.39. The business had revenue of $6.25 billion during the quarter. Block had a return on equity of 6.66% and a net margin of 5.40%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 3.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.71 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Block, Inc. will post 2.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Block Profile

Block NYSE: XYZ is a financial technology company that builds products and services to facilitate electronic payments, commerce, and consumer finance. Its principal business lines include a seller-focused ecosystem that provides point-of-sale hardware and software, payment processing, invoicing, payroll and lending services, and a consumer-facing platform that offers peer-to-peer payments, banking-like features, and investing. Block's portfolio also encompasses music streaming and buy-now-pay-later capabilities through businesses acquired to broaden its reach beyond core payments.

The company was founded as Square in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey and later rebranded to Block to reflect a diversified set of businesses across payments, consumer finance, and emerging technologies.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.