Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer & Treasurer, Square
Block COO + CFO Amrita Ahuja Overviews its Improved Full-Year Financial Forecast
About Amrita Ahuja
Amrita Ahuja, Block's chief operating officer and chief financial officer, discussed the company's financial results in May 2026, following a quarterly earnings report that showed a 27% year-over-year increase in gross profit. Ahuja stated that the company raised its full-year guidance, citing "broad-based growth across each of our ecosystems, Square and Cash App." She said Block expects to grow by 19% year-over-year and deliver a 27% adjusted operating income margin, exceeding a "rule of 40" target set three years prior. Ahuja described the 7-point margin increase as "a dramatic transformation for our business." Ahuja also highlighted Cash App's growth, noting it has 59 million monthly active users and that the Cash App card is the fourth most popular debit card in the United States. She described Cash App as a "network business" and said that serving younger users, including teens, strengthens the broader network. Ahuja added that from January to April 2026, the company saw a two-and-a-half times increase in production code shipped per engineer, which she said allows for faster output.
Transcript (18 segments)
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Interviewer0:00
Block recently reported better than expected results and upped its full-year outlook. Joining me now on the trading floor with more is Block COO and CFO Amrita Ahuja. Amrita, welcome.
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Amrita Ahuja0:11
Thank you so much for having me.
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Interviewer0:17
It's great to speak with you here at the New York Stock Exchange. What worked for Block in this latest quarter?
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Amrita Ahuja0:23
You know, we're really proud of our results coming out the gate strong in 2026 with momentum that carries us through the year, which is why we raised our guidance. What we saw was broad-based growth across each of our ecosystems, Square and Cash App, that led to an acceleration in our gross profit growth at 27% year-over-year and more than 50% growth from a profitability perspective to our highest profitability ever on an adjusted basis. What I'm really excited about is when I look at our two ecosystems with Cash App, 59 million monthly actives, with Square serving 4 million plus businesses around the world, is a broad-based tailwind of strength across commerce and financial services and an acceleration in growth in the volumes that we serve our customers from commerce volumes on Cash App to lending volumes to the ways in which our customers are engaging on our platform. All of that comes back down to being able to deliver more products at scale and doing it faster. The product velocity is what I'm most focused on. That's what's going to drive customer value ultimately.
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Interviewer1:31
What more can you share about product velocity?
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Amrita Ahuja1:33
So what we are doing is trying to create quality products across a range of features for each of our sellers and Cash App customers. Our Square business, we released more features in Q4 of 2025 than we did in all of 2024. What we're able to do is increase our velocity because the way we're operating our business, clearer lines of ownership, more accountability, strict timelines, urgency, and focus on the customer needs that we're solving, but also using all of the AI intelligence tools available to us today. What we saw just from January of this year to April of this year is a two and a half times increase in production code shipped per engineer. That means we're able to output at a far faster pace today than we were just four months ago. And that ultimately is going to create more and more things that we can do on behalf of our customers.
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Interviewer2:24
You mentioned earlier that Block, because of this confidence, raised its guidance. What is that new guidance?
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Amrita Ahuja2:29
We expect to grow by 19% year-over-year and to deliver a 27% adjusted operating income margin, exceeding our target to be a rule of 40 company in 2026, which is a target we had set three plus years ago. And so we're excited to see that. And that growth in profitability is a 7-point margin increase year-over-year, which is a dramatic transformation for our business. It means that we're able to scale at a 10 billion plus gross profit profile, but to do that with discipline, to do that with efficiency in how we run our business, making sure as many of the dollars that we put to work are touching our customers in some way.
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Interviewer3:11
And Block operates different products like Cash App and Square. What highlights can you share in regards to Cash App?
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Amrita Ahuja3:19
Cash App is a business that is serving more and more on behalf of our customers. We started as peer-to-peer, a way to send money to settle a dinner bill or to pull your funds together for an office gift. And now you can do so much more. We have the fourth most popular debit card in the United States with Cash App Card. And it's a product that's also very popular as you think about the multiple demographics that we're serving, including teens. Part of why we're here at the NYSE today. But we go so much further than just peer-to-peer. In commerce, you can now get a line of credit through Cash App. You can invest. You can buy fractional shares, a dollar worth of Berkshire Hathaway through Cash App Investing. You can buy a dollar worth of Bitcoin. These are tools that really provide broad financial access to people who are looking to get started and looking to build their financial livelihood.
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Interviewer4:11
What about the younger generation brings you to the stock exchange today?
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Amrita Ahuja4:14
So, we are so excited to grow with teens and with their families within Cash App. We already see that teens, the Cash App brand just is an incredible fit for teens. What we often see is the age of 15 is the age at which you're often getting your first job. You're coming up to speed from a financial literacy standpoint. And Cash App wants to be there to support those customers who often aren't as well supported by traditional financial institutions. I mentioned Cash App Card or debit card as being the fourth most popular in the US. With teens, it is the most popular debit card in the United States. So today we're here to hear from 30 different teens from across the New York area to learn about what they think about money, how they interact with it, how they want to grow from a financial lens, and what we within Cash App can do to support that.
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Interviewer5:06
Why are those younger users important to Block's ecosystem?
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Amrita Ahuja5:10
When we think about our business, it's ultimately a network business. And the more people we can serve, the more those people connect with others in their network, whether it's their dog walker or their babysitter or it's their aunts and their uncles and their parents. And so what we see is every new person we bring in has an opportunity to strengthen the broader network within Cash App. Teens of America today are the earners and spenders of the future. And we think we have a really unique opportunity through this aspirational brand that we've built, the customization within Cash App Card, the broad utility of the platform that we have that we think can really resonate with the young people here in the US and in New York.
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Interviewer5:54
Yeah. Anything more to share with us, Amrita?
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Amrita Ahuja5:56
We feel like we have tailwinds right now and really strong momentum as we head into the remainder of the year and we're just excited to keep executing.
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Interviewer6:02
Amrita Ahuja, of course, COO and CFO at Block. Thank you so much for joining us here on the trading floor.
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Amrita Ahuja6:10
Thank you for having me.