Block Stock Tumbles on Earnings Misses
56 minutes ago
Shares of Block (XYZ) slumped on Friday after the fintech company’s third-quarter results fell short of Wall Street’s expectations on the top and bottom lines.
Block reported adjusted earnings of 54 cents a share on revenue of $6.11 billion. Both figures came in below analysts’ estimates. The company’s gross profit grew 18% to $2.66 billion. Cash App’s growth accounted for the majority of those gains, while gross profit at payments unit Square increased a more modest 9%.
Block raised its full-year guidance, citing strong trends across the business. The company now expects gross profit of $10.243 billion, up from its prior estimate of $10.17 billion. Block also boosted its forecast for full-year adjusted operating income to $2.056 billion from $2.03 billion.
Nonetheless, investors focused on the misses and rising expenses, including a nearly $70 million increase in general and administrative costs that the company attributed to “an in-person company event.” According to Block, general and administrative expenses would have been roughly flat year-over-year without that event.
Block shares were down about 10% in recent trading. The stock has lost about 25% of its value since the start of the year.
Tesla Shareholders Back Elon Musk’s Big New Pay Package
1 hr 42 min ago
The fate of Tesla—or, at least, the answer to the question of whether its chief Elon Musk stays or walks—may have been settled at today’s shareholder vote.
A preliminary tally on this year’s 14 proposals, which include giving Musk greater control over Tesla (TSLA) as well as a trillion-dollar pay package, was rolling in late Thursday at a shareholder meeting that started after the close of trading. In that vote, the company said, more than 75% of voters moved to approve the proposal.
The crowd assembled for the meeting cheered as the result was announced. A final count will likely be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in a few days.
Taylor Hill / Getty Images
Though shareholders voted with Tesla to approve a past compensation deal for Musk on more than one occasion, the days leading up to today’s shareholder vote were been fraught with tension. The EV-company-with-robotics-and-AI-ambitions made clear its position that it would be lost without Musk at the helm and that the incentives it recommends are necessary to retain him.
“We believe that Elon’s singular vision is vital to navigating this critical inflection point,” Robyn Denholm and Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, members of the special committee of Tesla’s board of directors, wrote in a letter to shareholders.
Counterpoint Global, an investment team within Morgan Stanley Investment Management, as well as the Florida State Board and Schwab Asset Management, said they intend to cast their votes in favor of Musk’s compensation package.
On the other side, major proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and ISS advised shareholders to vote against the compensation package, citing dilution and a lack of key-person risk mitigation. Norway’s $2 trillion sovereign wealth fund disclosed earlier this week that it voted against the pay package for those reasons and others. The New York State Common Retirement Fund earlier this month said it intends to vote against it, and exhorted others to do the same.
The trillion-dollar vote drew in bettors across prediction markets Polymarket, Kalshi, and Robinhood—all of which overwhelmingly indicated the expectation—at 90% or higher—that Musk’s pay deal will pass.
Shares of Tesla fell about 3% Friday morning, bringing the stock’s year-to-date return to about 7%.
U.S. Stock Futures Point Lower
2 hr 53 min ago
Futures contracts tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average were down 0.2% in premarket trading on Friday.
S&P 500 futures were off 0.4%.
Nasdaq 100 contracts dropped 0.6%.
