Yahoo Finance Square (SQ) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
Square (SQ) closed at $262.50 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.58% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.15%.
Heading into today, shares of the mobile payments services provider had gained 1.75% over the past month, outpacing the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 0.81% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.58% in that time.
SQ will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.38, up 11.76% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $4.5 billion, up 48.48% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $1.87 per share and revenue of $18.83 billion. These totals would mark changes of +122.62% and +98.21%, respectively, from last year.
It is also important to note the 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.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. SQ currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Investors should also note SQ's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 142.82. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 59.05.
Meanwhile, SQ's PEG ratio is currently 4.55. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Internet - Software industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 4.07 as of yesterday's close.
The Internet - Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 205, which puts it in the bottom 20% 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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