Jefferies Financial Group Lowers Square (NYSE:SQ) Price Target to $140.00

Square (NYSE:SQ – Get Rating) had its price objective cut by stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from $155.00 to $140.00 in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, The Fly reports. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 46.52% from the stock’s previous close.

SQ has been the subject of several other research reports. DA Davidson dropped their target price on shares of Square from $275.00 to $175.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 28th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of Square from $203.00 to $147.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Square in a report on Wednesday, March 30th. They set a “buy” rating and a $173.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Square in a report on Friday, February 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $220.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Square from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $221.00 to $185.00 in a report on Friday, February 11th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, thirty-six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.81.

NYSE:SQ opened at $95.55 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 1.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $55.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 308.23 and a beta of 2.38. Square has a one year low of $82.72 and a one year high of $289.23. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $119.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $153.75.

Square (NYSE:SQ – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 5th. The technology company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.14 billion. Square had a return on equity of 10.08% and a net margin of 0.94%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 21.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.41 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Square will post -0.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In related news, CFO Amrita Ahuja sold 2,680 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.79, for a total transaction of $379,997.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 121,461 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,221,955.19. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 8,238 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.91, for a total transaction of $987,818.58. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 19,783 shares of company stock valued at $2,459,562 over the last quarter. Insiders own 15.12% of the company’s stock.

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ibex Wealth Advisors purchased a new position in Square in the third quarter valued at $25,000. Bell Investment Advisors Inc purchased a new position in Square in the third quarter valued at $30,000. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its holdings in Square by 56.0% in the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 25,000 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 8,974 shares in the last quarter. Arlington Partners LLC increased its holdings in Square by 200.0% in the first quarter. Arlington Partners LLC now owns 234 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 156 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Consolidated Planning Corp purchased a new position in Square in the third quarter valued at $36,000. 54.56% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Square Company Profile (Get Rating)

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.

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