Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Square (SQ) Stock Moves -1.78%: What You Should Know

Read MoreHide Full Article

In the latest trading session, Square (SQ - Free Report) closed at $61.30, marking a -1.78% move from the previous day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's 2.2% loss on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 1.86%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 1.44%.

Coming into today, shares of the mobile payments services provider had gained 39.53% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector gained 6.16%, while the S&P 500 gained 5.45%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from SQ as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be May 6, 2020. On that day, SQ is projected to report earnings of $0.14 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 27.27%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $1.30 billion, up 35.76% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $0.70 per share and revenue of $5.36 billion. These totals would mark changes of -12.5% and +13.8%, 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. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 150% lower. SQ currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, SQ is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 89.65. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 39.25, so we one might conclude that SQ is trading at a premium comparatively.

Investors should also note that SQ has a PEG ratio of 3.72 right now. 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. The Internet - Software was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.6 at yesterday's closing price.

The Internet - Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 70, which puts it in the top 28% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Block, Inc. (SQ) - free report >>

Published in