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How to buy Square stock | 186.35
Own Square stock in just a few minutes.
Square, Inc is a software—infrastructure business based in the US. Square shares (SQ) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Square employs 3,835 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$5.9 billion.
How to buy shares in Square
- Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
- Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
- Search for Square Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: SQ. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
- Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Square reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
- Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$186.35, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Square, depending on your broker.
- Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Square. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.
What's in this guide?
How has coronavirus impacted Square's share price?
Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, Square's share price has had significant positive movement.
Its last market close was USD$186.35, which is 55.20% up on its pre-crash value of USD$83.49 and 476.40% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$32.33.
If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of Square shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$501.33 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$2,334.97.
Square share price
Use our graph to track the performance of SQ stocks over time.Square shares at a glance
Information last updated 2020-10-13.
| Latest market close | USD$186.35 |
|---|---|
| 52-week range | USD$32.33 - USD$191.94 |
| 50-day moving average | USD$158.5086 |
| 200-day moving average | USD$111.9624 |
| Wall St. target price | USD$155.83 |
| PE ratio | 288.1231 |
| Dividend yield | N/A (0%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | USD$0.645 |
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Is it a good time to buy Square stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.
Square price performance over time
Historical closes compared with the close of $186.35 from 2020-10-16
| 1 week (2020-10-13) | -2.16% |
|---|---|
| 1 month (2020-09-18) | 28.51% |
| 3 months (2020-07-20) | 45.14% |
| 6 months (2020-04-20) | 205.19% |
| 1 year (2019-10-18) | 208.27% |
|---|---|
| 2 years (2018-10-19) | 151.59% |
| 3 years (2017-10-20) | 473.38% |
| 5 years (2015-10-16) | N/A |
Is Square under- or over-valued?
Valuing Square stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Square's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
Square's P/E ratio
Square's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 288x. In other words, Square shares trade at around 288x recent earnings.
That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.
Square's PEG ratio
Square's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 4.115. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Square's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
Square's EBITDA
Square's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$16.1 million.
The EBITDA is a measure of a Square's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.
Square financials
| Revenue TTM | USD$5.9 billion |
|---|---|
| Gross profit TTM | USD$1.9 billion |
| Return on assets TTM | -0.64% |
| Return on equity TTM | 19.48% |
| Profit margin | 5.15% |
| Book value | $4.354 |
| Market capitalisation | USD$82.1 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting Square shares
There are currently 24.2 million Square shares held short by investors – that's known as Square's "short interest". This figure is 7.6% down from 26.2 million last month.
There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Square shares can be evaluated.
Square's "short interest ratio" (SIR)
Square's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Square shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Square shares traded daily (recently around 11.0 million). Square's SIR currently stands at 2.2. In other words for every 100,000 Square shares traded daily on the market, roughly 2200 shares are currently held short.
However Square's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Square shares, or, against the total number of tradable Square shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Square's short interest could be expressed as 0.05% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Square shares in existence, roughly 50 shares are currently held short) or 0.0656% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Square shares, roughly 66 shares are currently held short).
Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Square.
Find out more about how you can short Square stock.
Square's environmental, social and governance track record
Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Square.
When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.
Square's total ESG risk score
Total ESG risk: 20.42
Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Square's overall score of 20.42 (as at 10/01/2020) is pretty good – landing it in it in the 22nd percentile of companies rated in the same sector.
ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Square is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).
Square's environmental score
Environmental score: 1.84/100
Square's environmental score of 1.84 puts it squarely in the 1st percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Square is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.
Square's social score
Social score: 11.53/100
Square's social score of 11.53 puts it squarely in the 1st percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Square is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.
Square's governance score
Governance score: 8.22/100
Square's governance score puts it squarely in the 1st percentile of companies rated in the same sector. That could suggest that Square is a leader in its sector when it comes to responsible management and strategy, and exposed to a lower level of risk.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary
Square, Inc was last rated for ESG on: 2020-10-01.
| Total ESG score | 20.42 |
|---|---|
| Total ESG percentile | 22.32 |
| Environmental score | 1.84 |
| Environmental score percentile | 1 |
| Social score | 11.53 |
| Social score percentile | 1 |
| Governance score | 8.22 |
| Governance score percentile | 1 |
Square share dividends
We're not expecting Square to pay a dividend over the next 12 months.
Square share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, Square's shares have ranged in value from as little as $32.33 up to $191.94. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Square's is 2.6756. This would suggest that Square's shares are significantly more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent a higher risk.
Square overview
Square, Inc. provides, together with its subsidiaries, payment and point-of-sale solutions in the United States and internationally. The company's commerce ecosystem includes point-of-sale software and hardware that offers sellers to payment and point-of-sale solutions. It provides hardware products, including Magstripe reader, which enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Contactless and chip reader that accepts Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) chip cards and Near Field Communication payments; Square Stand, which enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution; Square Register that combines its hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology; Square Terminal, a portable payments device that replaces keypad terminals, which accepts various payment types, such as tap, dip, and swipe, as well as prints receipts; and managed payments solutions. The company also offers various software products, including Square Point of Sale; Square Virtual Terminal; Square Appointments; Square for Retail; Square for Restaurants; Square Invoices, Square Online Store; Square Loyalty, Marketing, and Gift Cards; and Square Dashboard. In addition, it offers developer platform, which includes application programming interfaces and software development kits. Further, it provides managed payments, instant transfer, Square Card, Square Capital, and payroll. Additionally, it provides Cash App, which enables to send, spend, and store money; and Weebly that offers customers website hosting and domain name registration solutions. Square, Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
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