Green Dot Beats 3Q On Card, Cash Transfer Growth

Green Dot posted results that came in above the Street, buoyed by branded products, growth in prepaid cards and operating leverage.

In a news release, the company said that revenues came in at $201.6 million, up 30 percent year over year and beating the Street by $10.3 million. The earnings of 34 cents per share was seven pennies above consensus.

Management pointed toward organic growth rates in prepaid cards that topped internal expectations.  The number of active cards at quarter’s end stood at 5.2 million, compared to 4.1 million at the same period last year. Gross dollar volume stood at $7.8 billion, up from $5.3 billion in 2016. Purchase volume also gained ground, up to $5.2 billion compared to $3.7 billion in the third quarter of the previous year. Cash transfers topped 9.8 million in the quarter, up from 9.3 million last year. CEO Steve Streit said on the conference call with analysts that the organic active card growth of five percent was the first quarter of such growth seen since the second quarter of 2015 “two quarters earlier than we had forecasted.”  The number of active customers using mobile apps has grown since 2016 by 200 percent, he said.

The company also said that total operating revenues for the year will be between $878 million to $882 million.

The firm also said that it was unveiling a new multi-year partnership with Intuit Corp. Under the terms of that agreement, the two firms will create a branded prepaid card for TurboTax customers, with a pending launch slated for next quarter.

CEO Streit said in prepared remarks that the quarter saw “the advancement of Green Dot’s ‘Product and Platform’ business strategy, with the improving financial performance of our own branded products that we design, develop and distribute to consumers; and the growing momentum of our unique banking as a service or “BaaS” platform… With today’s announcement of the Intuit partnership, along with previously announced partnerships, Green Dot’s BaaS platform now powers enterprise-level programs for partners including Walmart, Apple, Uber and, now, Intuit.”