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Block (SQ) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Block (SQ - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $133.62, moving -1.46% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.34% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.4%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.47%.

Heading into today, shares of the mobile payments services provider had gained 18.72% over the past month, outpacing the Business Services sector's gain of 3.05% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.75% in that time.

Block will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Block to post earnings of $0.20 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 51.22%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $4.24 billion, down 16.18% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.05 per share and revenue of $19.02 billion, which would represent changes of -38.6% and +7.72%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Block. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 97.63% lower. Block currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Block currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 128.94. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 22.98.

Also, we should mention that SQ has a PEG ratio of 6.09. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Technology Services stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.25 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Technology Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 171, putting it in the bottom 33% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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