By Pritam Biswas (Reuters) -Block missed Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit on Thursday amid persistent economic uncertainty and intensifying competition in the payments sector, sparking a more than 11% slide in its shares after the bell. Consumer spending slowed in the third quarter as businesses and households curbed discretionary purchases, weighing on payment firms […]
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Block misses profit estimates on sluggish consumer spending, shares slump
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By Pritam Biswas
(Reuters) -Block missed Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit on Thursday amid persistent economic uncertainty and intensifying competition in the payments sector, sparking a more than 11% slide in its shares after the bell.
Consumer spending slowed in the third quarter as businesses and households curbed discretionary purchases, weighing on payment firms such as Block.
The Jack Dorsey-led company posted an adjusted net income of 54 cents per share, compared with analysts’ average estimate of 67 cents, according to data compiled by LSEG.
“The stock is down in after-hours trading, we believe, due to the bottom line miss and because it was a popular long into results,” Truist analysts said in a note.
The company’s Square segment, which provides payments solutions to small- and medium-sized businesses, reported gross profit of $1.02 billion, up from $932 million a year ago. But, growth slowed to 9% from 16% in the year-ago quarter.
The company, which facilitates bitcoin purchases by acquiring the cryptocurrency and reselling it at a small premium, said revenue in the business fell to $1.97 billion from $2.43 billion, a year earlier.
The cryptocurrency remained volatile in the third quarter and the company recorded a remeasurement loss of $59.6 million on its bitcoin investment.
Cash App, however, posted a higher gross profit and showed better growth from a year earlier. Mounting pressure from peer-to-peer payments apps had weighed on the growth in the business.
Block expects gross profit of $10.24 billion for 2025, compared with $10.17 billion forecast earlier.
“We saw only isolated impacts from tariffs,” Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja said on a post-earnings call and added that performance in October was strong.
Block’s shares have lost nearly 17% of their value so far in 2025, underperforming the benchmark S&P 500 index. The company was added to the index earlier in the year.
(Reporting by Pritam Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar and Sriraj Kalluvila)