Square reports strong results helped by stimulus and Bitcoin
Square, the giant American payment processor, reported strong first quarter earnings on Thursday. This helped propel its share price up by more than 2%, bringing its total market value to more than $101 billion.
Strong quarter for Square
Square is a technology company that was started by Jack Dorsey, who also started Twitter. He is currently the CEO of the two companies.
The firm provides payment processing services to companies from around the world. It also offers its customers loans using the data it processes.
Square also owns Cash App, one of the most popular peer-to-peer payment platforms in the United States. The app is used by millions of Americans to send money and even buy cryptocurrencies.
In a report on Thursday, the company said that its gross profit surged by 144% year-on-year in the first quarter. Its revenue rose to more than $5 billion while Cash App made more than $4 billion. Bitcoin revenue rose to more than $3.5 billion. This happened as Bitcoin price surged to an all-time high of near $65,000 in the first quarter. In a statement, Jack Dorsey said:
“Our omnichannel offers have enabled us to attract and retain larger sellers, too. Larger sellers come to Square for the breadth of our ecosystem, including our vertical point-of-sale products.”
Payment industry doing well
In addition to Square, other payment companies have reported strong results recently. Earlier this week, Western Union reported strong earnings growth led by its digital platforms. And on Wednesday, PayPal reported a surge in revenue as its revenue rose to more than $6 billion. The total payment volume increased to more than $285 billion.
To some extent, this performance was expected since the economy is in a recovery mode that has been helped by the recent stimulus package. The biggest concern is whether the growth will continue later this year.
