The pullback in Block ‘s stock price since late July creates an attractive buying opportunity for investors, according to Macquarie. “With shares now de-rated and operating leverage flowing through, we upgrade shares on this improved upside/ downside positioning in our view across shares and fundamentals,” Macquarie said as it upgraded the stock to an outperform rating in a note to clients Tuesday. Macquarie views Block’s Cash App business as one of the company’s greatest strengths, expecting year-over-year growth to continue accelerating in the fourth quarter. “Management highlighted its focus on enabling developers around integrations for third-party platforms to deliver greater insights to large sellers – a notable point given the typical closed-loop benefits for Cash App use and Square POS we discussed earlier,” the firm wrote. “This to us speaks to the company’s focus on being valuable to large enterprises – something we have heard for quite some time.” Despite optimism in Block’s business outlook, Macquarie anticipates continued uncertainty within the company’s buy now, pay later segment. Block bought Australian fintech company Afterpay for $29 billion in 2021. Along with the upgrade, Macquarie upped its price target on the stock to $101 a share. That implies a roughly 61% upside for the stock from Monday’s close. Shares rose roughly 2% before the bell Tuesday. — CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed reporting
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