Square satisfies Q1 targets, shares slip on light guidance
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Square's first quarter financial results beat market estimates, but its shares still dipped more than six percent in late trading after the company issued lower-than-expected earnings guidance.
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The payments company posted a Q1 net loss of $24 million, or six cents a share, compared to a net loss of $15.1 million, or four cents a share, a year earlier.
Square's Non-GAAP earnings also rang up at six cents a share on revenue of $307 million, up 51 percent over the same quarter last year.
Read also: Square Cash adds Bitcoin transactions for most users
Wall Street was looking for earnings of six cents a share on revenue of $292.86 million.
Square's gross payment volume (GPV), a key metric for the payments company, came to $17.8 billion, an increase of 31 percent from the same period a year ago. GPV from larger sellers, defined by Square as merchants generating more than $125,000 in annualized revenue, grew 44 percent year over year, attributing 47 percent of GPV for the quarter.
Transaction-based revenue was $523 million, up 30 percent year over year. Square also noted that made $200,000 by supporting Bitcoin trading on its Cash App since December 2017.
Read also: Square buys catering platform Zesty to bolster Caviar
Subscription and services-based revenue, which includes the company's lending service Square Capital and food delivery business Caviar, was $97 million, up 98 percent from the first quarter of 2017. Square says it has advanced nearly $339 million to sellers via Square Capital in Q1.
Hardware revenue was $14 million, up 60 percent from a year ago, bolstered by the launch of the new Square Register, which began shipping in December, Square said.
For the current quarter, Wall Street is expecting earnings of 12 cents a share with revenue of $334.02 million. Square responded with a Q1 earnings guidance between nine cents and 11 cents a share with revenue between $355 million and $360 million.
Square also raised its outlook for the fiscal year, forecasting strong momentum following its acquisition of the corporate catering platform Zesty. The company now expects 2018 revenue in the range of $3 billion to $3.06 billion, with EPS between 44 and 48 cents.