Jackson Hole Capital Partners LLC Invests $450,000 in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Jackson Hole Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 5,819 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $450,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its position in Block by 3,525.7% during the fourth quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 5,935,002 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $459,072,000 after acquiring an additional 5,771,310 shares during the period. Lone Pine Capital LLC bought a new position in Block during the third quarter worth $172,001,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its position in Block by 72.8% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 2,683,346 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $118,765,000 after acquiring an additional 1,130,925 shares during the period. ARK Investment Management LLC increased its position in Block by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. ARK Investment Management LLC now owns 11,887,628 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $919,508,000 after acquiring an additional 1,000,514 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in Block by 396.4% during the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,228,886 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $54,390,000 after acquiring an additional 981,320 shares during the period. 70.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Block Price Performance

NYSE SQ traded up $1.71 on Friday, hitting $74.50. 4,648,118 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,805,016. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $77.21 and a two-hundred day moving average of $66.90. The company has a market cap of $45.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 435.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 2.55. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Block, Inc. has a 1-year low of $38.85 and a 1-year high of $87.52.

Block (NYSE:SQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The technology company reported $0.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.02 by $0.01. Block had a net margin of 0.04% and a return on equity of 0.63%. The business had revenue of $5.77 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.69 billion. On average, equities analysts predict that Block, Inc. will post 1.02 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SQ has been the topic of a number of research reports. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $75.00 target price on shares of Block in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Wolfe Research boosted their price target on shares of Block from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Benchmark boosted their price target on shares of Block from $89.00 to $99.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $60.00 price target (down previously from $62.00) on shares of Block in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Block from $77.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty-eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Block presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $85.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In other Block news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.75, for a total transaction of $42,375.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 68,323 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,790,374.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Block news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.75, for a total transaction of $42,375.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 68,323 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,790,374.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 4,514 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.41, for a total transaction of $353,942.74. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 477,290 shares in the company, valued at $37,424,308.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 363,801 shares of company stock worth $27,284,175. Company insiders own 10.79% 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.