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Square (SQ) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

ANIK vs. RGEN: Which Stock Is the Better Value Option?

In the latest trading session, Square (SQ) closed at $62.87, marking a -1.23% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.02% loss on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.29%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.39%.

Coming into today, shares of the mobile payments services provider had lost 8.82% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector gained 0.38%, while the S&P 500 lost 2.56%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from SQ as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be February 26, 2019. On that day, SQ is projected to report earnings of $0.13 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 62.5%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $910.57 million, up 47.81% from the year-ago period.

SQ's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $0.46 per share and revenue of $3.26 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +70.37% and +47.28%, respectively.

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Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for SQ. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. SQ is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note SQ's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 138.72. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 55.33.

Meanwhile, SQ's PEG ratio is currently 5.55. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Internet - Software industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.95 as of yesterday's close.

The Internet - Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 24, putting it in the top 9% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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