Jack Dorsey’s Square Inc. reported earnings per share for the quarter that beat analyst estimates, alleviating some of the growth concerns for the payments company, whose shares have fallen about 20 per cent over the past 12 months.

Key Insights

Square reported adjusted revenue of US$602 million for the quarter, up 40 per cent from the same quarter last year.
Gross payment volume was US$28.2 billion for the quarter, up from US$22.5 billion in the same quarter last year.
Square reported net revenue for its Cash App of US$159 million, excluding Bitcoin, for the quarter, up 115 per cent year-over-year.
The company recently completed the sale of its food delivery app, Caviar, to DoorDash Inc.

Market Reaction

Shares of the company were little changed in after-hours trading.
Year-to-date, the stock was up about 9 per cent as of the close of trading Wednesday, compared to 23 per cent for the S&P 500.

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In a report out this week, Nomura Instinet analyst Bill Carcache said he sees Square’s Cash App users as less loyal than those of rival service Venmo, owned by PayPal Holdings Inc. According to his note, of the 44 million Cash App downloads through the end of December 2018, only about 15 million are still active.