Topic: How To Invest

Q: Pat, hello and thanks for the years of advice. Just wondering what your thoughts on Square Inc. are? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: Square Inc., $80.51, symbol SQ on New York (Shares outstanding: 423.0 million; Market cap: $34.1 billion; www.squareup.com), provides payment processing and related services to merchants in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, Ireland and the U.K. The company is headquartered in San Francisco. Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter, and entrepreneur Jim McKelvey, co-founded Square in 2009. Dorsey is now CEO. Square first sold class A shares (one vote per share) to the public on November 19, 2015, at $9.00 a share. Through class B shares (10 votes per share), insiders hold 58.2% of the voting power. The company began with a square-shaped card reader that plugs into a smartphone or tablet to let businesses of any size accept payment anywhere. Square products and software now enable payments via swipe, chip, tap, or online. Square also offers merchants a range of additional subscription-based business services. They include CashApp and CashCard, which let users send and receive funds; Square Online Store, a free online marketplace for…