Square stock is a 'must own' given long growth runway, says Jefferies

Jefferies expert Trevor Williams assumed sum of Square Inc. shares SQ, +3.70% Thursday, assigning the banal a bargain standing and $300 terms target. Under a erstwhile Jefferies analyst's coverage, Square had a clasp standing and $265 target. Williams sees a agelong maturation runway for Square with opportunities to triumph marketplace stock successful its seller concern and thrust synergies erstwhile it completes its planned acquisition of buy-now pay-later relation Afterpay Ltd. He called the banal a "must own" and deemed Square's Cash App the person successful the "crowded" satellite of neobanks. "As the gait of disruption wrong payments and broader FinTech ecosystem accelerates, we judge companies with way records of merchandise improvement and innovation...offer the champion extortion against eventual obsolescence, and are astir apt to outperform long-term," Williams wrote. Still, helium sees immoderate risks for the company, including that statement expectations for the 3rd 4th mightiness beryllium excessively optimistic. Shares of Square are up 2.9% successful premarket trading Thursday. They've slipped 2.3% implicit the past 3 months arsenic the S&P 500 SPX, +1.08% has accrued 0.1%.