Square Inc. announced Tuesday afternoon that it was pulling its prior full-year outlook due to uncertainties around COVID-19. The company also provided updates on the business from the last few weeks as the coronavirus outbreak began to impact U.S. merchants and consumers. While Square said it saw 47% year-over-year growth in gross profit for January and February, the company began to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in March. "While the beginning of March was relatively in-line with the company's expectations, over the trailing 10-day period Seller GPV has declined by approximately 25% year over year, with greater declines in recent days," the company said in a release. "This has offset relative strength in the Cash App ecosystem, where the impact on gross profit growth has been less pronounced." Square now expects to post first-quarter net revenue of $1.3 billion to $1.34 billion and gross profit of $515 million to $515 million, an outlook that "assumes a further deceleration in overall GPV through the last week of March, beyond the levels we have seen in recent days." The company had previously called for $1.34 billion to $1.36 billion in total net revenue and $550 million to $560 million in gross profit. The announcement comes as Square's stock posted its largest single-day percentage gain on record in Tuesday's regular session. The company is due to hold an investor conference call at 5 p.m. ET Tuesday, which is taking place in lieu of the Investor Day conference that was scheduled to take place in person before the COVID-19 outbreak forced the cancellation of many live events. Shares of Square were up 2.6% in after-hours trading Tuesday. Read More...
Square Inc. announced Tuesday afternoon that it was pulling its prior full-year outlook due to uncertainties around COVID-19. The company also provided updates on the business from the last few weeks as the coronavirus outbreak began to impact U.S. merchants and consumers. While Square said it saw 47% year-over-year growth in gross profit for January and February, the company began to feel the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in March. “While the beginning of March was relatively in-line with the company’s expectations, over the trailing 10-day period Seller GPV has declined by approximately 25% year over year, with greater declines in recent days,” the company said in a release. “This has offset relative strength in the Cash App ecosystem, where the impact on gross profit growth has been less pronounced.” Square now expects to post first-quarter net revenue of $1.3 billion to $1.34 billion and gross profit of $515 million to $515 million, an outlook that “assumes a further deceleration in overall GPV through the last week of March, beyond the levels we have seen in recent days.” The company had previously called for $1.34 billion to $1.36 billion in total net revenue and $550 million to $560 million in gross profit. The announcement comes as Square’s stock posted its largest single-day percentage gain on record in Tuesday’s regular session. The company is due to hold an investor conference call at 5 p.m. ET Tuesday, which is taking place in lieu of the Investor Day conference that was scheduled to take place in person before the COVID-19 outbreak forced the cancellation of many live events. Shares of Square were up 2.6% in after-hours trading Tuesday.
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