What is Block?
Block Inc. (SQ), formerly known as Square, is a fintech business that offers mobile payment solutions. Two seasoned businessmen, co-founders of Twitter Inc. (TWTR) Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey, started the startup in 2009.
Block is a mobile payments fintech company that runs the Seller and Cash ecosystems to assist startups in expanding their businesses and offering personal financial products to consumers. Over the previous few years, the company has acquired five significant companies: Verse Technologies, Weebly Inc., Eloquent Labs, Third Party Trade LLC, and Stitch Labs.
Block paid $272.5 million in 2018 to acquire Weebly, an online retailer and website builder. Their goal was to allow merchants to electronically take card payments, a feature previously out of reach for many companies.
Square was the market leader when it came to developing technology that could combine mobile payments and merchant services into a single, user-friendly offering. As a result, the Seller ecosystem provides various tools, including a point of sale, virtual terminal, invoice, and other types of company management and financial software, to assist sellers in starting, operating, and expanding their enterprises.
The Cash ecosystem includes the Cash App, which offers financial services and solutions targeted at assisting people in managing their money. Around two billion card payments generated a total gross payment volume of $103.7 billion in 2020, which Square processed.
Block; A Digital wallet for Web 3.0!
It’s easier than you imagine to access various DeFi platforms, from crypto to NFTs and beyond. You can trade assets with the help of OKX, a top notch provider in the fintech industry for digital assets, and benefit from top level security. For example, when you perform a deposit of more than $50 through a cryptocurrency purchase or top-up within 30 days of registration, you can connect existing wallets and win up to $10,000.
Block Inc. Initial Public Offering (IPO):
In November 2015, it launched its IPO trading as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange or NYSE under the ticker name SQ. The company’s initial valuation at the time of its IPO was $2.9 billion, which is more than lower than its previous valuation of $6 billion in October 2014.
The $6 billion “value” from October 2014 is incorrect since the rights attached to the series E funding shares differed from those attached to the common shares offered at the IPO. Although the company had not made any profit as of 2015 and had lost $420 million since 2012, in the six months before its initial public offering (IPO), losses had fallen from 44% of revenues to 16%.
Block invested roughly 1% of its total assets ($50 million) (4,709 bitcoins) in the cryptocurrency in October 2020, citing its “potential to be a more ubiquitous currency in the future” as its fundamental justification. At about $170 million, the corporation acquired roughly 3,318 bitcoins in February 2021, boosting Block’s total holdings to about 8,027.
Block Inc. Stock Price:
At the time of writing the piece, Block Inc. was trading at a stock price of $72.44 with a market capitalization of USD 44.04 Billion. Block’s 52-week high stock price of 149.00 is 101.2% more than the stock price. Moreover, the 52-week low stock price for Block is 51.34, which is 30.7% less than the current share price.
Block Inc. Price trends:
28 Wall Street analysts who follow (NYSE: SQ) shares agree that the stock is a Strong Buy. Out of 28 analysts, 15 (53.57%) are advising SQ as a Strong Buy, 8 (28.57%) are advising SQ as a Buy, 5 (17.86%) are advising SQ as a Hold, 0 (0%), as a Sell, and 0 (0%), as a Strong Sell.
The average SQ price objective, as reported by 28 Wall Street analysts who have predicted SQ stock prices for the next year, is $101.21, with the highest SQ stock price projection being $175.00 and the lowest SQ stock price estimate being $72.00.
By March 8th, 2024, Wall Street experts anticipate Block’s share price will rise to $101.21. With the current SQ share price of $74.07, the average Block stock price projection predicts a potential increase of 36.65%.
Earnings Per Share (EPS) for Block is at $0.93. Experts expect SQ’s EPS to be $0.10 on average for 2023, with the lowest estimate coming in at -$0.38 and the highest at $0.59. SQ’s EPS is expected to be -$0.17 on average in 2024, with the lowest estimate at -$0.70 and the highest at $0.36. SQ’s EPS is anticipated to drop to -$0.31 in 2025 (minimum: -$0.31, maximum: -$0.31).