Green Dot's (GDOT) Q4 Earnings & Revenues Beat Estimates

Green Dot Corporation (NYSE:GDOT) delivered impressive fourth-quarter 2018results,with earnings and revenues beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 56 cents beat the consensus mark by 6 cents and surged 93.1% year over year. This marks the 10th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. The bottom line was driven by strong adjusted EBITDA growth, interest income from the investment of cash deposits held at Green Dot Bank and lower year-over-year effective tax rate.

Total operating revenues of $237.8 million outpaced the consensus mark by $1 million and rose 11.6% year over year on the back of 100% organic growth.

Shares of Green Dot have gained 23.9% in the past year compared with the 15.1% rise of the industry.

Let’s discuss.

Key Metrics

Gross dollar volume grew 16.4% year over year to $9.8 billion. Purchase volume increased 10.9% from the prior-year quarter’s tally to $6.3 billion. The reported quarter ended with 5.3 million active accounts (up nearly 1% y/y) and 10.9 million cash transfers (up 9.6% y/y). The number of tax refunds processed were 0.07 million compared with 0.06 million in the year-ago quarter.

Segmental Revenues

Account Services operating revenues came in at $200.1 million, up 11.1% from the year-ago quarter. The segment benefited from growth in purchase volume and increased retention of customer accounts. Processing and Settlement Services revenues of $45 million, grew 10.9% from the year-ago quarter on the back of organic growth in each of the segment's various product lines.

Green Dot Corporation Revenue (TTM)

Operating Results

Adjusted EBITDA of $43.9 million increased 36.8% on a year-over-year basis. Adjusted EBITDA margin of 18.4% increased from 15.1% in the year-ago quarter.

Balance Sheet & Cash Flow

Green Dot exited the quarter with cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash balance of $1.1 billion compared with $1 billion at the end of the prior quarter. The company has no long-term debt.

The company generated $36.7 million of cash from operating activities and spent $17.6 million in capex.

2019 Guidance

The company expects revenues in the range of $1.114-$1.134 billion, lower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.140 billion.

Adjusted earnings are anticipated between $3.59 and $3.67, the mid-point of which is lower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.66.

Adjusted EBITDA is expected in the band of $315-$321 million.

Zacks Rank & & Upcoming Releases

Green Dot currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Investors interested in the broader Zacks Business Services sector are keenly awaiting fourth-quarter 2018 earnings reports of key players like Navigant Consulting (NYSE:NCI) , FTI Consulting (NYSE:FCN) and ICFI International (NASDAQ:ICFI) . The companies are slated to announce results on Feb 26.

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