Square Stock Is Down. Earnings Were Strong, but Expenses Will Rise.

Square Stock Is Down. Earnings Were Strong, but Expenses Will Rise.

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Square



‘s revenue and profits beat Wall Street’s forecasts in the first quarter as it processed more than $3.5 billion in Bitcoin transactions. But, coupled with the company’s expectations for tougher comparisons and higher expenses, the results may not be good enough to boost the stock.

Square (ticker: SQ) reported total revenue of $5.06 billion, coming in well ahead of Wall Street’s consensus estimate for $3.3 billion. A big lift came from Bitcoin transactions amounting to $3.5 billion, up from $306 million a year ago.

Gross profits of $964 million trounced the $831 million consensus estimate, and were up 79% year over year.

Square’s transaction-based revenue beat forecasts at $960 million, up 27% year over year, and ahead of forecasts for $865 million. Almost all of that, or $868 million, was processing payments for merchants through Square’s Seller platform, up 19% year over year. The Seller ecosystem overall delivered revenue of $1 billion and $468 million in gross profit, rising 19% and 32% over the March quarter in 2020.

Gross payment volume hit $33.1 billion, beating the consensus forecast for $30.4 billion.

Square’s Cash App for peer-to-peer