Block Inc. has been focused on getting leaner, and that paid off for the Square parent company in the latest quarter as it posted a surprise profit. Shares climbed more than 13% in Thursday’s extended session as Block also delivered an upbeat bottom-line forecast.
The company on Thursday recorded fourth-quarter net income of $10 million, or 2 cents a share, whereas it posted a loss of $541 million, or 93 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Analysts tracked by FactSet had been expecting a 1 cent loss per share. On an adjusted basis, Block
SQ,
+5.41%
earned 45 cents a share, below the FactSet consensus, which was for 58 cents a share. But Block also reported $562 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation (Ebitda), above the $448 million consensus view. “Driving that is continued growth in the business at scale,” Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja told MarketWatch. The company is seeing “consistent growth” across both its Square and Cash App ecosystems, while working to make the business more efficient, including through job cuts that have brought the company’s headcount below 12,000. The constraints have been “clarifying for us,” Ahuja said, as Block refocuses its strategy for both sides of the business. Last quarter, it outlined to investors the strategy for its Square seller business, which included a push to be more localized with its go-to-market approach and better embrace artificial intelligence. This time around, the company focused its shareholder letter on the Cash A …
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The company on Thursday recorded fourth-quarter net income of $10 million, or 2 cents a share, whereas it posted a loss of $541 million, or 93 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Analysts tracked by FactSet had been expecting a 1 cent loss per share. On an adjusted basis, Block
SQ,
+5.41%
earned 45 cents a share, below the FactSet consensus, which was for 58 cents a share. But Block also reported $562 million in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation (Ebitda), above the $448 million consensus view. “Driving that is continued growth in the business at scale,” Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja told MarketWatch. The company is seeing “consistent growth” across both its Square and Cash App ecosystems, while working to make the business more efficient, including through job cuts that have brought the company’s headcount below 12,000. The constraints have been “clarifying for us,” Ahuja said, as Block refocuses its strategy for both sides of the business. Last quarter, it outlined to investors the strategy for its Square seller business, which included a push to be more localized with its go-to-market approach and better embrace artificial intelligence. This time around, the company focused its shareholder letter on the Cash A …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]