Shares of Block Inc. fell 7% in after-hours trading Thursday after the payment-technology company swung to a loss in an earnings report that seemed to cause some controversy about whether the company actually beat or missed expectations on several key metrics. Block
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which somewhat recently changed its corporate name from Square, posted a net loss of $208.0 million, or 36 cents a share, whereas it logged net income of $204.0 million, or 40 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. On an adjusted basis, Block earned 18 cents a share, down from 49 cents a share in the year-before quarter, while analysts had been modeling 16 cents a share.
Block’s revenue fell to $4.40 billion from $4.68 billion, reflecting a sharp decline in bitcoin
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contributions in the latest quarter. Bitcoin revenue fell 34% to $1.79 billion in the second quarter. Read: These companies hopped on the crypto train when times were booming. Which are exposed in a downturn? Analysts tracked by FactSet had been expecting $4.33 billion in overall revenue for the quarter. While bitcoin trading generates heavy revenue for Block, it comes with minimal profit, one reason why executives at the company and the analysts who cover the stock tend to look at Block’s overall gross-profit figures as a proxy for revenue. “Gross profit captures our take on those bitcoin sales, which is why you see the more consistent trends on a gross profit basis relative to revenue,” Chief Financial Of …