Block price target lowered to $74 from $82 at Keefe Bruyette

Keefe Bruyette lowered the firm’s price target on Block to $74 from $82 and keeps a Market Perform rating on the shares. The analyst says payment stocks have underperformed on the back of softer spending trends and a rotation into other sectors like financials and technology. The sector “is clearly out of favor” going into Q2 earnings, and investors will be looking for signs of stabilization to estimates, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Keefe’s favored names into earnings are the networks, Adyen (ADYEY), Shift4 Payments (FOUR) and Wex (WEX).