Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ)

Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Block, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,793 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 406 shares during the quarter. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Block were worth $603,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of SQ. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Block by 85.4% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 139,647 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $10,802,000 after buying an additional 64,337 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of Block by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 10,377,973 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $802,736,000 after buying an additional 75,161 shares during the period. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Block in the fourth quarter valued at $2,135,000. Simplicity Solutions LLC raised its stake in shares of Block by 33.1% in the fourth quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC now owns 6,508 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $503,000 after buying an additional 1,620 shares during the period. Finally, NewEdge Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Block by 49.3% in the fourth quarter. NewEdge Wealth LLC now owns 8,998 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $696,000 after buying an additional 2,970 shares during the period. 70.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Block

In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 4,514 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.41, for a total transaction of $353,942.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 477,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,424,308.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Block news, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 4,514 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.41, for a total transaction of $353,942.74. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 477,290 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $37,424,308.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $84.75, for a total value of $42,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 68,323 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,790,374.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 363,801 shares of company stock valued at $27,284,175 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 10.79% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Wolfe Research boosted their target price on Block from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. TheStreet upgraded Block from a “d+” rating to a “c-” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 19th. Benchmark boosted their price objective on Block from $89.00 to $99.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Block from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $95.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Wedbush reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Block in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty-seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $84.41.

Block Price Performance

Shares of SQ traded down $0.06 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $73.44. The stock had a trading volume of 3,402,843 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,142,079. Block, Inc. has a 12-month low of $38.85 and a 12-month high of $87.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.90, a quick ratio of 1.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The company’s 50-day moving average is $76.39 and its 200 day moving average is $65.55. The company has a market capitalization of $45.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 452.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 2.55.

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

Block Company Profile

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.