Block (SQ) Earnings: Former Square beats estimates on EPS, revenue

SQ stock is down 66% since July 2021 highs.
Block has dropped 39.5% since the beginning of 2022.
Wall Street expects $0.22 in normalized EPS on $4.06 billion in revenue.

Clay Webster FXStreet

UPDATE: The payments company formerly known as Square turned in a decent quarter. The renamed Block needed it since its stock, SQ, is down 45% year to date. Block reported adjusted EPS of $0.27 on $4.08 billion. Wall Street had expected $0.22 per share on $4.06 billion.

Block (SQ), formerly known as Square, is set to announce Q4 earnings on Thursday, February 24. The earnings reveal comes at a time when the company's stock has given up just about all of its pandemic heights. SQ shares closed below $100 on Friday for the first time since June 2020. SQ stock is down 39.5% YTD and 66% since July 2021 when it traded as high as $289.

Block Stock News: Worries over missing estimates

The market did not like when Block missed earnings estimates for the third quarter. On November 4, 2021, the former Square missed adjusted earnings per share (EPS) by one cent but revenue by $650 million or 14.5%. The next day the stock closed more than 4% lower, and that began the series of cascading sell-offs that led SQ shares to close below $100 this past Friday.

Since that most recent earnings call, forecasts for the payments company's upcoming EPS have been revised lower on 13 occasions and only revised upward once. This time around analysts place consensus non-GAAP EPS at $0.23 on $4.06 billion.

Investors will be watching to see how much Bitcoin transactions contribute to the bottom line. Its Cash App unit has relied heavily on BTC transactions for growth, but the fourth quarter saw the BTC price drop from $68,000 to $46,000. Another thing to pay attention to is where Block's debt position is now. At the end of the third quarter, Block had $5.9 billion in debt. The Afterpay acquisition was an all-stock deal, but the company may be incurring heavy costs related to the endeavor.

Block Stock Forecast: Trying to find support at $87

SQ shares have now broken through the $100 level, significant for its psychological value and its offering of serious support in the previous three weeks. On the weekly chart, the second, third and fourth to last candles are all dojis, which demonstrate indecision in price action. Translation: the market was really pushing to keep Square price above $100.

Now that it is below, expect shares to find support in the demand zone between $84 and $87. This region first provided resistance in January 2020 before the pandemic and then as support in June of that year once the rally got going. Underneath this point, there is no serious support until the area around $60. SQ stock will remain in a bear stance until its closes above $119, the range high from February 10.

SQ 1-week chart

Like this article? Help us with some feedback by answering this survey:

Author

Clay Webster

FXStreet

Clay Webster grew up in the US outside Buffalo, New York and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He began investing after college following the 2008 financial crisis.

GBP/USD revisits 1.3530; Dollar pushes harder

GBP/USD adds to the weekly correction and recedes toward the 1.3530 zone on Friday. Indeed, Cable faces increasing selling pressure on the back of extra gains in the Greenback, particularly fuelled by Chair Warsh’s speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium and the US NFP Annual Revision (-79K).

EUR/USD breaches below 1.1600, multi-day lows

EUR/USD now accelerates its decline and retreats to seven-day troughs in the sub-1.1600 region at the end of the week. The pair’s pullback comes on the back of the strong rebound in the US Dollar after Chair Warsh delivered a hawkish message in Jackson Hole, while the US NFP Annual Revision came in at -79K.

Gold challenges its 200-day SMA near $4,530

Gold’s decline gathers fresh steam, hitting weekly lows while disputing its critical 200-day SMA near $4,530 per troy ounce. The yellow metal’s increasing weakness comes in response to the generalised upbeat tone in the US Dollar and the widespread rebound in US Treasury yields, as investors continue to reprice a Fed rate hike in September.

Week ahead: RBNZ and BoC decide on rates ahead of all-important US NFP

The US dollar staged a modest recovery this week, perhaps as traders decided to cover some of their short positions amid slightly stickier or in-line US PCE inflation numbers for July, confounding expectations of softer prints amid the softness revealed in the CPI data for the month.

CFTC Report: CAD short covering leads; Gold buying surges

The week in one sentence: speculative positioning shifted more constructively in the week to August 25. CAD short covering led the move, followed by a broad reduction in EUR shorts and renewed Gold buying. GBP and VIX positioning also improved, while JPY positioning deteriorated and WTI flows diverged from weaker prices.

Diesel’s record $100 warning: The oil shock hiding in plain sight

The Oil market may look calmer than it did a few months ago, but diesel is sending a very different message. The US diesel crack spread, the premium of ultra-low sulphur diesel futures over WTI, recently surged above $100 per barrel for the first time, reaching an intraday record of just over $102.00.