Beat and Raise
“Beat and raise.” Those are the two best words a shareholder can hear out of an earnings report. That is exactly what Square (SQ) did this week. They beat analyst’s estimates and raised guidance for 2018. For some reason, the stock fell a bit after the report, but once investors heard the conference call, SQ rose another 1.5% to another 52-week high near the $38 mark. The “payment space,” as Wall Street would call it, is hot. Paypal (PYPL), Visa (V), and MasterCard (MA) are leaders in the industry, but Square is gaining market share, and working on their banking side, making loans to small businesses and building a customer base that will either make the company a strong independent processor or make it an attractive take-out candidate. Either way, investors (like me) win. So far, it’s been a nice ride. Meanwhile, Pfizer (PFE) struggles along as almost dead money, and while it’s a nice dividend play, at 3.6%, young-at-heart investors (like me) would like t...