Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey addresses students during a town hall at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in New Delhi, India on November 12, 2018.
Anushree Fadnavis | Reuters
Block shares rose about 3% in extended trading after the payments company reported fourth-quarter earnings that missed Wall Street expectations but posted strong growth in gross profit.
Here’s how Block fared against Refinitiv’s consensus expectations:
- Earnings per share: $0.22 adjusted, compared to expectations of $0.30
- income: $4.65 billion versus expectations of $4.61 billion
Block posted $1.66 billion in gross profit, a 40% year-over-year increase. That beat Wall Street expectations of $1.53 billion.
Analysts tend to focus on gross profit as a more accurate measure of a company’s core operations.
The company’s net loss for the quarter was $114 million, or 19 cents per share.
Block, formerly known as Square, told CNBC that in December the company ended the year with 51 million active transactions on the Cash App per month, an average of two out of three transactions per week.
According to Block, its Cash App business generated $848 million in gross profit, a 64% year-over-year increase. In December 2022, the Cash App had 51 million monthly active transactions, up 16% year over year.
The company said its Cash App Card generated more than $750 million in gross revenue in 2022, up 56% from a year earlier.
Square’s retail gross profit increased 22% year-over-year to $801 million.
Shares were up more than 15% in 2023 before Thursday’s after-hours market.
Executives will discuss the results on a conference call beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET.
