What to Expect When Square Reports After the Close

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 6, 5:04AM EST · Published May 1, 10:45AM EDT

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Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ) is scheduled to release its first-quarter financial results after the markets close on Wednesday. The consensus estimates are calling for $0.08 in earnings per share (EPS) and $478.27 million in revenue. In the same period of last year, the mobile payments company said it had $0.06 in EPS and $306.82 million in revenue.

Despite having strong earnings in the fourth quarter, the stock still dropped by about 8% in response to the report. This was the result of the stock being up about 70% in the past 52 weeks at that point.

In the fourth quarter, Square had a gross payment volume (GPV) of $23 billion, an increase of 28% year over year and 2% sequentially. At the same time, GPV from larger sellers grew 39% year over year and accounted for 51% of total GPV, up from 47% in the fourth quarter of 2017.

At that time, Square issued guidance calling for EPS in the range of $0.06 to $0.08 and revenue between $472 million and $482 million.

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Excluding Wednesday’s move, Square had outperformed the broad markets, with its stock up about 30% year to date. Over the past 52 weeks, the stock was up closer to 53%.

A few analysts weighed in on Square ahead of the report:

Sanford Bernstein has a Market Perform rating and an $80 price target.
Macquarie has an Outperform rating with a $94 price target.
KeyCorp’s Overweight rating comes with a $110 price target.
Mizuho has an $85 price target.
Jefferies has a Hold rating with a $73 price target.
SunTrust Banks has a Hold rating and a $75 price target.

Shares of Square were last seen up about 1.5% at $73.93 on Wednesday, in a 52-week range of $46.50 to $101.15. The consensus price target is $83.33.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.