$SQ Block Inc Deep Dive and 2024 Outlook

The stock is still trying to recover from the Covid highs as all fintech companies are hurt from high interest rates

Block, Inc., formerly known as Square, Inc., is a financial technology company founded by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey in 2009, initially offering a financial services platform for small and medium-sized businesses. The company's flagship product, Square, enables the use of smartphones or tablets as point-of-sale registers for processing credit card payments and facilitates operations such as customer bookings, e-commerce, inventory, payroll, shift schedules, banking, and borrowing business loans.

Block's portfolio includes Cash App, a consumer-focused service introduced in 2013, which offers peer-to-peer transactions, direct deposits, a savings account, a debit card, investing in stocks and Bitcoin, a tax filing service, and personal loans.

In 2021, Block acquired Afterpay, a buy now, pay later service, and Tidal, a subscription-based music streaming service. The company also owns TBD, a decentralized platform targeting Bitcoin and decentralized finance, and Bitkey, a self-custody Bitcoin hardware wallet.

Block's revenue declined by approximately 1% in 2022 compared to the previous year, with a net loss of $540.7 million for 2022 on a GAAP basis. Analysts expect Block to lose $208 million in 2023, according to FactSet estimates. Block, Inc. operates as a financial services and digital payments company, serving 56 million users and 4 million businesses, with an annual payment processing volume of US$228 billion as of 2023.