Square up 7% after surpassing quarterly expectations

Square, the payments company founded and run by Jack Dorsey, released its quarterly financial results for the first quarter after the bell on Wednesday.

The company beat expectations, bringing in $462 million in revenue, when investors were forecasting $451 million. This is a 22 percent increase from the same period last year.

Adjusted losses per share were 4 cents, better than the negative 8 cents Wall Street was predicting. Shares shot up about 7 percent in initial after-hours trading.

Square also touted its gross payment volume, a measurement of total transactions, which came in at $13.6 billion. This was up 33 percent year-over-year.

The bulk of Square’s revenue came from its payment transactions category, which accounted for $403 million in the first quarter. These are primarily the transactions done on iPads, the largest part of Square’s core business.

“Subscription and services-based” revenue brought in $49 million. This category has more than doubled in the past year. Square Capital, Caviar and Instant Deposit contributed to the growth in the subscription category, as part of a suite of services that they offer to small businesses.

Square was in the news this past week for acquiring some of the engineers from Yik Yak, the now defunct anonymous social network that was once popular on college campuses.

Dorsey is also simultaneously a CEO at Twitter, a company he co-founded. Since returning to the helm in late 2015, investors have been skeptical that he would be able to successfully run both companies. Square has seen its share price soar, at a time when Twitter’s has struggled.

Square went public in late 2015 at $9 per share. It’s more than doubled since then, closing the day Wednesday at $18.28.

The company’s market cap is now at almost $7 billion, which is symbolic for the company, which initially went public at a valuation well beneath its $6 billion last private round.