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Will Portfolio Strength Benefit Block's (SQ) Q4 Earnings?

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Block (SQ - Free Report) is set to report fourth-quarter 2023 results on Feb 22.

The company’s portfolio strength is likely to have contributed well to the fourth-quarter performance.

Its friendly ecosystem, which enables sellers to combine software, hardware and payment services to accept payment from customers, is expected to have helped maintain solid momentum across sellers.

All these factors are likely to have driven Block’s Gross Payment Volume (GPV) growth in the fourth quarter.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for GPV for the fourth quarter is pegged at $58.85 billion, suggesting growth of 10.7% from the year-ago reported figure.

Click here to know how the company’s overall fourth-quarter performance is expected to have been.

Block, Inc. Price and Consensus

 

Block, Inc. Price and Consensus

Block, Inc. price-consensus-chart | Block, Inc. Quote

Portfolio Strength: Key Catalyst

The impacts of Block’s portfolio strength are anticipated to get reflected in the fourth-quarter results.

In the to-be-reported quarter, Block’s Square introduced a few solutions for sellers, including Square Online's Themes and Square for Retail's AI-generated product descriptions. This is likely to have helped sellers enhance their customer engagement and automate sales.

Further, Square introduced 10 generative AI features for sellers, enabling them to automate operations, speed up workflows and save time.

These efforts are expected to have driven Block’s seller momentum in the to-be-reported quarter.

In regard to buy now, pay later initiatives, Block’s Afterpay partnered with the e-commerce technology company Rokt, enabling its retail partners to provide relevant advertising experiences to targeted customers during the checkout process using the latter's e-commerce solution.

Coming to bitcoin advancements, Block launched the self-custody bitcoin wallet Bitkey in more than 95 countries across six continents, allowing users to easily and safely own and manage their bitcoin.

In addition, Square introduced Tap to Pay on Android for Canadian sellers, allowing secure, contactless credit card payments on compatible Android devices at no additional cost.

All the above-mentioned efforts are expected to have contributed well to the company’s fourth-quarter GPV.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Currently, Block carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader technology sector are CrowdStrike (CRWD - Free Report) , Badger Meter (BMI - Free Report) and AMETEK (AME - Free Report) . CrowdStrike currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and Badger Meter and AMETEK carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) each. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Shares of CrowdStrike have gained 31% in the year-to-date period. The long-term earnings growth rate for CRWD is 36.07%

Shares of Badger Meter have lost 0.6% in the year-to-date period. The long-term earnings growth rate for BMI is 12.27%.

Shares of AMETEK have gained 5.2% in the year-to-date period. The long-term earnings growth rate for AME is 9.19%.

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