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Square (SQ) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Square (SQ - Free Report) closed at $58.51 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.76% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.62%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.61%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.05%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the mobile payments services provider had lost 6.88% over the past month. This has lagged the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 3.77% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.85% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from SQ as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.20, up 53.85% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $1.19 billion, up 35.37% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $0.77 per share and revenue of $4.55 billion. These totals would mark changes of +63.83% and +37.86%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for SQ. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. SQ currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, SQ is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 74.92. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 54.95.

It is also worth noting that SQ currently has a PEG ratio of 3. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Internet - Software stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.73 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Internet - Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 91, which puts it in the top 36% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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