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Block, Inc.: Q1 FY2026 earnings call

What management said about Q1 FY2026, from the documents filed with the SEC on 7 May 2026: letter to shareholders. Guidance figures: 2 raised. The quarter’s numbers.

Key takeaways

  • Gross profit grew 27% year over year: Gross profit reached $2.91 billion, up 27%, with growth accelerating in both Cash App and Square. Source
  • Adjusted Diluted EPS rose 52%: Adjusted Diluted EPS reached $0.85, up 52% year over year, while the GAAP result was a net loss per share. Source
  • Cash App gross profit up 38%: Cash App gross profit reached $1.91 billion, with Borrow, BNPL and Cash App Card driving growth, and commerce volume up 18%. Source
  • Adjusted Operating Income margin hit 25%: Adjusted Operating Income reached $728 million, up 56% year over year, at an all-time-high margin of 25% of gross profit. Source
  • Buybacks of $636 million in Q1: Block repurchased 10.7 million Class A shares for $636 million, leaving $4.7 billion of repurchase authorization at March 31, 2026. Source
  • All employees now use AI tools: As of early April, all Block employees use AI tools for their work, and Builderbot executes over 200,000 operations per day. Source
  • Builderbot makes 15% of code changes: Builderbot makes about 15% of production code changes nearly autonomously; people make only the final decision to push to production. Source

“We exceeded our guidance across gross profit, Adjusted Operating Income, and Adjusted EPS.”

Block, Inc., letter to shareholders

Guidance

AreaPeriodFigureAgainst last quarter
Adjusted Operating Income SourceFY2026$3.34 billion, 27% margin, 60% growthRaised
Adjusted Diluted EPS SourceFY2026$3.85, 62% growthRaised
Gross profit SourceQ2 2026$3.04 billion, 20% year-over-year growth
Adjusted Operating Income SourceQ2 2026$740 million, 24% margin
Adjusted Diluted EPS SourceQ2 2026$0.86, 39% growth

What changed from last quarter

  • Guidance raised: Full-year 2026 guidance was raised for gross profit, Adjusted Operating Income and Adjusted Diluted EPS. Source
  • New: Afterpay for P2P transactions launched in April, extending credit to customers. Source
  • New: Cash App managed accounts for kids, for children ages 6-12, were introduced in April. Source
  • New: Cash App Score became visible to customers in May. Source
  • New: Neighborhoods added auto-enrollment and expanded Local Cash redemption to in-store purchases in April. Source
  • New: An organizational change was executed in February, with restructuring charges recorded in the quarter. Source

Results and growth drivers

  • Gross profit grew 27% year over year: Gross profit reached $2.91 billion, up 27%, with growth accelerating in both Cash App and Square. Source
  • Adjusted Diluted EPS rose 52%: Adjusted Diluted EPS reached $0.85, up 52% year over year, while the GAAP result was a net loss per share. Source
  • Operating loss on restructuring charges: Operating loss was $172 million, which included $852 million of restructuring and other charges tied to the February organizational change. Source
  • Net loss and record Adjusted EBITDA: Net loss attributable to common stockholders was $309 million, while Adjusted EBITDA reached a record $1.0 billion. Source

Segments and regions

  • Cash App gross profit up 38%: Cash App gross profit reached $1.91 billion, with Borrow, BNPL and Cash App Card driving growth, and commerce volume up 18%. Source
  • Square GPV grew 13%: Square GPV reached $61.2 billion; U.S. GPV grew 8.2% and International GPV grew 35%, or 26% in constant currency. Source
  • Square gross profit grew 9%: Square gross profit rose 9%, or 11% excluding hardware, which carries one-time customer acquisition costs; Square Loans drove the growth. Source
  • Bitcoin Ecosystem gross profit fell: Bitcoin Ecosystem gross profit fell 26%, reflecting bitcoin trading dynamics and a lower fee on certain Cash App bitcoin transactions. Source

“Internally, AI is helping us move faster and improve quality.”

Block, Inc., letter to shareholders

Products and customers

  • Moneybot live, Managerbot reaching sellers: Moneybot is live across Cash App, and Managerbot is available to more than 1 million sellers before U.S. general availability. Source
  • Management frames proactive AI as next step: Management said the next step is AI that acts proactively, watching for patterns and prompting customers or sellers to act early. Source
  • Most conversations begin with prompts: About 70% of Managerbot and Moneybot conversations start from proactive prompts; insight-led sessions are linked to higher return rates. Source
  • Cash App Green cohorts skew younger: Estimated average age of a Cash App Green Active is 34, against a median age over 50 for traditional U.S. banking customers. Source
  • Neighborhoods followers grew 94%: Followers grew 94% from December to March, and followers transacted 50% more often than non-followers during Q1. Source

Costs and loss rates

  • GAAP expense growth from restructuring: GAAP general and administrative rose 74%, product development 37% and sales and marketing 29%, driven in part by restructuring costs. Source
  • Non-GAAP product spend fell 9%: Non-GAAP general and administrative fell 4%; non-GAAP product development fell 9% on lower personnel-related costs, partly offset by software and cloud. Source
  • Borrow loss rates by cohort: Borrow loss rates were 3.16% for the 0-6 month cohort, 3.01% for 7-12 months and 2.67% for 13 months and over. Source
  • Cash App sales and marketing up 36%: Non-GAAP sales and marketing rose 22%, with Cash App sales and marketing up 36% and other sales and marketing up 20%. Source

“We are building tools that absorb complexity for people rather than just helping them manage it.”

Block, Inc., letter to shareholders

Margins, pricing and profitability

  • Adjusted Operating Income margin hit 25%: Adjusted Operating Income reached $728 million, up 56% year over year, at an all-time-high margin of 25% of gross profit. Source
  • Commerce monetization rose 9 basis points: The Cash App commerce enablement monetization rate reached 1.61%, up 9 basis points, on higher Afterpay Post-Purchase attach. Source
  • Financial Solutions profit per active up: Financial Solutions gross profit per active reached $16, up 60%, mainly from Cash App Borrow. Source

Demand and seller growth

  • ISO partners add new Square sellers: New sellers from over 140 ISO partnerships grew over 200% quarter over quarter, following field sales investments made in 2025. Source
  • Consumer lending originations up 82%: Consumer Lending originations rose 82%, with Cash App Borrow originations nearly tripling as eligibility extended to Cash App Green cohorts. Source
  • Mid-market and food sellers accelerate: Mid-market Square sellers accelerated more than other segments; food and beverage GPV rose 21%, retail 11% and services 7%. Source

Capital, cash and shareholder returns

  • Buybacks of $636 million in Q1: Block repurchased 10.7 million Class A shares for $636 million, leaving $4.7 billion of repurchase authorization at March 31, 2026. Source
  • Lending capital deployed over 12 months: Block deployed $2.8 billion in lending products over 12 months; Q1 free cash flow was $935 million, and non-GAAP cash flow was $363 million. Source
  • Liquidity of $9.1 billion: Total liquidity was $9.1 billion, including $8.2 billion of cash, restricted cash and marketable debt, plus undrawn facilities. Source

AI in engineering and products

  • All employees now use AI tools: As of early April, all Block employees use AI tools for their work, and Builderbot executes over 200,000 operations per day. Source
  • Builderbot makes 15% of code changes: Builderbot makes about 15% of production code changes nearly autonomously; people make only the final decision to push to production. Source
  • Code changes per engineer up 2.5x: Production code changes per engineer are up over 2.5 times compared with January, as of mid-April. Source
  • Incident rates down over 70%: Incident rates after a production code change fell over 70% from Q1 2025 and over 40% from Q4 2025. Source

People and operating model

  • Smaller team using AI tools: Management said a significantly smaller team, using the tools being built, can do more and do it better. Source
  • Incidents improved since reorganization: In the two months since the organizational change, incident rates kept improving compared with the start of Q1. Source
  • Remote-first records feed AI: Management said remote-first work leaves decisions, code, designs and progress recorded and machine readable, giving AI a model to learn from. Source

Coming up, as management said on 7 May 2026

  • Managerbot general availability in June: Managerbot general availability in the U.S. is expected in June. Source
  • Higher go-to-market spend planned: Management expects to increase go-to-market spend meaningfully in the second quarter. Source
  • Q2 2026 results on August 5: Second-quarter 2026 results are scheduled for release on August 5, 2026, after the market closes. Source

Figures management reported

FigureReported
Cash App monthly transacting actives Source59 million in March
Cash App Primary Banking Actives Source9.7 million, up 18% year over year

Risks management discussed

  • Financial: Losses on transaction, loan and consumer receivables rose sharply as loan volumes grew. Source
  • Financial: Bitcoin investment remeasurement loss of $173 million pre-tax, equal to $0.29 of diluted EPS in the quarter. Source
  • Regulatory: Accrued legal contingencies were recorded within general and administrative expense in the quarter. Source

Earlier plans management reported on

  • Ahead: Management said Q1 Adjusted Operating Income was above its guidance. Source
  • Not stated: Square gross profit is expected to grow in line with GPV growth in the second half, after lapping 2025 items. Source
  • Not stated: Management expects growth in transaction, loan and consumer receivable losses to decline for the rest of 2026. Source
  • On track: Management said Borrow cohort loss rates are in line with expectations and with data shared at Investor Day. Source

Other quarters

Summarised with AI from the documents the company filed with the SEC. Every point is checked against the filing before it is shown: management’s own words word for word, figures against the line or table row they come from. A point that fails the check is left out. Source opens the filing at that line.