Square shares climb after better-than-expected results

Square shares climbed in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company reported second-quarter results that beat analyst expectations.

Here's how the company did compared to what Wall Street expected:

• Loss per share: 4 cents vs. 5 cents, according to Thomson Reuters consensus.
• Revenue: $552 million vs. $536.3 million, according to Thomson Reuters consensus.
• Gross payment volume: $16.4 billion vs. $16.02 billion, according to StreetAccount consensus.

The stock rose nearly four percent during initial after-hours trading. The shares since then have pared its gains and is now trading nearly one percent.

In Square's second-quarter last year, the company reported a loss of 8 cents on revenue of $438.5 million.

Given their strong second-quarter results, Square raised its full-year guidance:

• Adjusted earnings per share: 21 cents to 23 cents, vs. previous outlook of 16 cents to 20 cents
• Adjusted revenue for 2017: $925 million to $935 million, vs. previous outlook of $890 million to $910 million

In late July, the Jack Dorsey-led company announced that Shake Shack CEO Randy Garutti will be joining its board of directors.

The technology company, which directly competes with PayPal's Venmo and Apple's peer-to-peer payments services, is a favorite for small businesses who often use Square readers to complete transactions.

The payment processing company is up more than 96 percent year-to-date, and over 160 percent over the past year. Square hit an all-time intraday high of $27.97 on July 27.