Square (SQ) To Report Q3 Earnings: What's In The Offing?

Square, Inc. (NYSE:SQ) is scheduled to report third-quarter 2018 results on Nov 7.

The company surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in the trailing four quarters with an average beat of 17.29%.

In the last reported quarter, Square delivered a positive earnings surprise of 18.18%. Adjusted earnings came in 13 cents, surging 85.7% on a year-over-year basis and 116.7% sequentially. The figure came ahead of management’s guided range of 9-11 cents per share.

Net revenues of $815 million surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $773 million and also came ahead of the revised guided range of $744-$764 million. The figure increased 47.6% from the year-ago quarter and 21.8% on a sequential basis.

The strong performance of Cash App and Caviar drove top-line growth. This aided Gross Payment Volume (“GPV”) aided Square’s second-quarter results further.

For third-quarter 2018, management expects net revenues between $840 million and $860 million. Further, adjusted earnings are expected in the range of 8 to 10 cents per share.

Coming to the price performance, shares of Square have returned 127.9% on a year-to-date basis, outperforming the industry’s rally of 5.8%.

Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Expanding Seller Base to Aid Growth

The company’s strong initiatives toward expansion of its seller base will continue to drive its business growth.

During the to-be-reported quarter, Square introduced a new program called Square Solutions Partner Program in a bid to enhance its connectivity with the sellers. The company enables the small as well as large business owners to connect with Square approved agencies, resellers, or systems integrators. This will provide them with the solution that their businesses require.

All these will aid the company to attract more sellers to its platform. Further, several companies joined the company’s new program and Third Arm Marketing was one of them.

Apart from this, Square’s comprehensive commerce ecosystem and product integrations are expected to continue strengthening its seller base. This is likely to drive the company’s third-quarter 2018 results.

Upswing in GPV

GPV continues to be the key growth metric for Square. The above mentioned endeavors along with expanding product and services portfolio is likely to drive GPV growth in the to-be reported quarter.

Square defines larger sellers as those which make more than $125,000 of annualized GPV and midmarket sellers as those which make more than $500,000 of annualized revenues.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GPV for third quarter is currently projected at $22.4 billion which exhibits an impressive growth of 28.7% compared with the reported figure in the year-ago quarter.

We believe the company’s strengthening relationships with the sellers on its platform will continue to accelerate GPV figure in the to-be-reported quarter.

What Our Model Says

According to the Zacks model, a company with a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) has good chance of beating estimates if it also has a positive Earnings ESP. The Sell-rated stocks (Zacks Rank #4 or 5) are best avoided. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Square has a Zacks Rank #3 but an Earnings ESP of 0.00%, which makes surprise prediction difficult.

Stocks That Warrant a Look

Here are few stocks worth considering as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to deliver an earnings beat in the upcoming releases.

Match Group (NASDAQ:MTCH) has an Earnings ESP of +3.59% and a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Adobe Systems (NASDAQ:ADBE) has an Earnings ESP of +0.19% and Zacks Rank #2.

Five9 (NASDAQ:FIVN) has an Earnings ESP of +5.88% and a Zacks Rank #3.

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