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Square Surges to Record High After Surprise Q2 Earnings Beat
By: TheStreet | August 5, 2020

• Square said "early external access of the company’s quarterly financials" forced it to release earnings one day ahead of schedule, but top and bottom line beats are pushing the shares to fresh record highs.

Square Inc. (SQ) shares surged higher in pre-market trading Wednesday after the online payments group posted stronger-than-expected second quarter earnings thanks to a surge in app use linked to stimulus and unemployment benefits.

Square, which released its earnings one day ahead of schedule after what it called "early external access of the company’s quarterly financials' to the group's financials", said gross profit rose 28% from last year to $597 million while revenues surged 64% to a Street-beating $1.92 billion

Square Capital said it processed around $873 million in paycheck protection payment (PPP) loans over the quarter, while overall quarterly gross payment volumes grew 17.5% to $26.8 billion

Square shares were marked 11.4% higher in pre-market trading Wednesday to indicate an opening bell price of $152.40 each, an all-time high that would extend the stock's year-to-date gain to around 143% and value the San Francisco, California-based group at $67 billion.

"Notwithstanding management’s acknowledgement that Cash App’s performance may have benefited from stimulus and unemployment benefits, results for the consumer oriented platform demonstrated impressive strength during the quarter," said JMP Securities analyst David Scharf, who carries a market-perform rating on the stock.

"Total monthly active accounts topped 30 million and the number of Cash Card holders reached 7 million, a doubling versus last year. Cash card spend was up 50% sequentially, with the cash balances stored in accounts 86% higher than just three months ago," he added. "Demonstrating management’s vision of an ecosystem for the stored value vehicle, the company is seeing an increase in the number of products being used in the first month of activation."

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