Robert W. Baird Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for Block (NYSE:XYZ) Stock

Key Points

• Robert W. Baird raised its price target on Block from $90 to $100 and kept an outperform rating, implying about 24% upside from the previous close.
• Block has seen a mixed analyst backdrop, but the overall view remains positive with a Moderate Buy consensus and an average price target of $87.56.
• The company recently beat earnings expectations, reporting $0.85 EPS versus the expected $0.30 and posting $6.06 billion in quarterly revenue, up 4.9% year over year.

Block (NYSE:XYZ - Get Free Report) had its target price hoisted by equities research analysts at Robert W. Baird from $90.00 to $100.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an "outperform" rating on the technology company's stock. Robert W. Baird's price objective indicates a potential upside of 24.24% from the company's previous close.

XYZ has been the topic of a number of other research reports. William Blair downgraded shares of Block to a "market perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price objective on shares of Block from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Piper Sandler raised shares of Block from an "underweight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $58.00 to $100.00 in a research note on Monday. Rothschild & Co Redburn upgraded Block from a "sell" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $45.00 to $55.00 in a report on Wednesday, March 18th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Block from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, June 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-six have assigned a Buy rating, seven have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Block presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $87.56.

Block Price Performance

Shares of XYZ stock opened at $80.49 on Thursday. Block has a 52-week low of $48.21 and a 52-week high of $82.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.99 and a current ratio of 1.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.83, a P/E/G ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 2.54. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $71.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.46.

Block (NYSE:XYZ - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The technology company reported $0.85 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.30 by $0.55. The business had revenue of $6.06 billion for the quarter. Block had a return on equity of 7.02% and a net margin of 3.30%.The business's revenue for the quarter was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.56 EPS. Block has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.860-0.860 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.850-3.850 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Block will post 2.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Block

In other Block news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 30,919 shares of Block stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.00, for a total value 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,166 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.01, for a total value of $555,369.66. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 601,002 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,874,146.02. The trade was a 1.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 249,773 shares of company stock valued at $18,725,016 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 11.37% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ameriprise Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Block in the second quarter worth about $535,305,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Block during the fourth quarter valued at about $484,387,000. Capital World Investors raised its position in shares of Block by 192.7% in the 3rd 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. Viking Global Investors LP purchased a new position in shares of Block in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $368,213,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Block by 528.2% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,309,296 shares of the technology company's stock worth $199,153,000 after purchasing an additional 2,782,523 shares in the last quarter. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Block

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.

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