Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Twitter Inc. and Square Inc., listens during the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, Florida, Friday, June 4, 2021.
Eva Marie Uzcategui | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Block stock rose as much as 14% in extended trading on Thursday after the payments company reported fourth-quarter earnings that beat analysts' gross profit estimates and showed strong growth in its Square and Cash App revenue.
Here's how the company performed compared to an analyst consensus from LSEG, formerly Refinitiv:
- Earnings per share: 45 cents, adjusted. Not comparable to estimates.
- Revenue: $5.77 billion versus expected $5.70 billion
Block posted gross profit of $2.03 billion, up 22% from a year ago. Analysts tend to focus on gross profit as a more accurate measurement of the company's core transactional businesses.
The company raised its adjusted EBITDA forecast to at least $2.63 billion from $2.40 billion.
Block, formerly known as Square, ended the year in December with 56 million active monthly transactions for Cash App, with most of those customers using it for either peer-to-peer payments or the Cash App Card.
Its Cash App business reported gross profit of $1.18 billion, up 25% from a year ago.
The Jack Dorsey-led company said its Cash App Card saw 23 million monthly active cards in December, up 20%. This is more than double the growth rate of total monthly assets.
“We believe this strategy will allow us to build the largest network over the long term, with a highly engaged customer base that uses Cash App as their primary banking solution,” Dorsey said in a note to shareholders.
The payments company has focused on streamlining its operations in recent months. Block's CEO reportedly said in a note to staff in January that the company had laid off a “large number” of workers. That followed another round of layoffs in December.