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https://www.barrons.com/articles/stock-market-movers-8c0c7b23
Block Inc.’s stock has been a sizable laggard this year, and now it’s losing the leader of a critical business — albeit one that hasn’t necessarily lived up to investor expectations lately.
Alyssa Henry, the head of Block’s
SQ,
Square merchant business, is stepping down after a long tenure with the company, and Jack Dorsey will assume her role while continuing to lead Block on the whole, the company announced in a Monday filing.
The announcement comes as Block shares have declined 18% so far this year, while the S&P 500
SPX
has risen 16%. Other payment-technology stocks, including Shift4 Payments Inc.,
FOUR,
Toast Inc.
TOST,
and even PayPal Holdings Inc.
PYPL,
have logged better year-to-date performances.
Block’s stock closed at its lowest level since April 7, 2020 on Monday, according to Dow Jones Market Data. It was down about 2% in after-hours trading.
The stock is also down 82% from its all-time closing high achieved Aug. 5, 2021.
See also: PayPal’s ‘fresh start’ isn’t enough to help its stock, analyst cautions
The performance of the Square merchant business, which includes payment processing and other tools for sellers, has been a sore point for investors recently. Wolfe Research analyst Darrin Peller notes that Block’s second-quarter U.S. gross payment volume (GPV) was up 10% from a year earlier, a four-point spread above Visa Inc.’s
V,
domestic growth. Historically, the spread has been in double digits, he said.
Additionally, while the 12% overall growth in Square’s GPV “continues to imply that Square is a market-share gainer, we note that this growth spread relative to the industry has trended lower and also suggests slightly softer growth trends versus competitors like Clover,” which is part of Fiserv Inc.
FI,
whose shares are up 20% on the year.
“While some of Square’s success over the years should be attributed to Alyssa’s execution, the company’s more recent performance remains a concern for investors (and we suspect for management, internally),” Peller wrote.
He pointed to “mixed” feedback from investors thus far.
“Bulls argue that this change is positive, indicating that management is taking change seriously,” Peller said. “Further, it’s worth noting that Jack has been more receptive to cost management and other adjustments. Meanwhile, bears are citing that Alyssa was the ‘face’ of Seller and was more receptive to changes in Square’s business model compared to Jack (particularly around outsourced distribution).”
Block, for its part, said in its filing that Henry “provided significant contributions” to the company during a tenure that spanned more than nine years.
UBS downgraded Block shares earlier this month, in part due to concerns about the Square business. Analyst Rayna Kumar said she was concerned about a potential slowdown in gross-profit growth owing to a moderation in consumer spending.
Oracle Stock Extends Rally After Earnings Top Estimates
What is it about CEOs and their intense — and often oddball — workout routines?
These days, some top corporate honchos take their exercise rituals to extremes. Consider Damola Adamolekun, chief executive officer of restaurant chain P.F. Chang’s, who recently told Fortune magazine that he wakes up each day at 4:30 a.m. and runs seven to eight miles. He explained that the routine stimulates his nervous system and sets the tone for the day ahead. “You’ll feel better the whole day; you’ll be smarter, you’ll be sharper, you’ll be more energetic,” he said.
Adamolekun is in good company when it comes to training hard. Here are how five other executives work up a sweat and aim to stay healthy.
AFP via Getty Images
The Twitter co-founder, who now heads the tech conglomerate Block
SQ,
does it all: two-hour meditations, fasting — he has said he eats only once a day during the week and has almost no food on the weekends — and alternating saunas and ice baths. But he’s no gym rat: Dorsey gets his primary exercise by walking an hour and 15 minutes every day. “I might look a little bit more like I’m jogging than I’m walking. It’s refreshing … It’s just this one of those take-back moments where you’re like, ‘Wow, I’m alive!’” he once observed.
Getty Images
The Meta Platforms
META,
chief isn’t one to get up at the crack of dawn, according to GQ, but he still runs three mornings a week. “I also try to take my dog running whenever I can, which has the added bonus of being hilarious because that’s basically like seeing a mop run,” he told GQ. As for diet, he once was said to experiment with an eating plan that involved only devouring animals he had killed himself — including chickens, goats and pigs. But he also apparently skips meals — or at least he said as much in a 2021 Facebook post. “Do you ever get so excited about what you’re working on that you forget to eat meals?” he asked.
Getty Images
Kite surfing, anyone? The founder of the Virgin Group swears by it as one of his favorite ways to stay fit, according to Men’s Health. He once even kite surfed across the English Channel. His other activities include tennis and biking. He’ll work with a trainer if he’s on the road, but otherwise he likes to exercise outdoors on his private island in the British Virgin Islands. “I just want to be sure that when I’m 150, my body still looks as good as it is today,” said Branson, who is now 72.
Getty Images
The head of software company Palantir Technologies takes advantage of the fact that he lives near the White Mountains of New Hampshire to have a regular cross-country skiing routine. Key to his approach, he told Axios, is taking it slow on the snow. “To run like a deer, you have to spend 90% of your time running like a snail,” he explained, adding that his unhurried pace “builds a cardio base.” He also includes tai chi and stretching to his routine. But he isn’t too fussy about his diet. “If I’m traveling and someone has a really nice Danish, I enjoy every minute of eating it,” he said.
Sports Illustrated
The 81-year-old lifestyle entrepreneur and founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia has been in the spotlight for her recent cover appearance on Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue. So what does she do to stay in shape for beach season? Stewart swears by Pilates, according to various media reports. And she rides horses. She has also said she doesn’t smoke, eats very well and every morning drinks a glass of “green juice” made with pears, cucumbers, celery stalks, parsley, fresh ginger and two oranges (complete with peels), a recipe she calls “so spectacular.”
Block, Inc. engages in creating ecosystems for distinct customer audiences. It operates through the Square and Cash App segments. The Square segment provides businesses the ability to accept card payments. The Cash App segment offers an ecosystem of financial products and services to help consumers manage their money. The company was founded by Jack Patrick Dorsey, and James Morgan McKelvey in February 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.
The San Francisco Police Department on Thursday arrested Nima Momeni, 38, of Emeryville, Calif., for allegedly stabbing to death tech executive Bob Lee.
Mission Local, an independent local news site, first reported the arrest.
City officials held a press conference Thursday afternoon, saying that the arrest occurred earlier in Emeryville,…
Block
stock rose Thursday after the payments group responded to some of a short seller’s allegations.
Last week, Hindenburg Research disclosed a short position in the company, alleging that Block (ticker: SQ) had inflated user metrics and didn’t rein in illicit activity by users on its Cash App platform. A short position is a bet that a stock will fall: Traders who try it borrow shares of a company and then sell them, hoping to buy them back later at a lower price.