Block (XYZ 0.57%) had a decent, if unspectacular, June, ultimately emerging from the month with a 10% gain in share price. A product launch in an important market overseas, announced as we approached July, was a catalyst, as were several positive analyst notes across the preceding weeks.A good month for analyst takesIn the opening days of the month, Block earned a recommendation upgrade from Evercore ISI, whose analyst Adam Frisch ticked up his rating to outperform (buy, in other words) from in line (hold). ...

Block (XYZ) shares have appreciated roughly 5% in the past month and 12.7% in the past week, thanks to positive news flow, including an expanding merchant network for Cash App Afterpay, the launch of Square Handheld portable point-of-sale (POS) device, partnership with Domino’s and new Square banking tools.However, are these developments potent enough to push the XYZ stock higher this year? On a year-to-date (YTD) basis, Block shares are down 26.5% due to increasing competitive pressure and softness in cons ...