Pasadena’s Green Dot Tops Investor Forecasts

Pasadena-based Green Dot Corporation earned $2 million for the third quarter ending September 30, 2016, the company reported Wednesday.

Green Dot Corporation is an issuer of prepaid MasterCard and Visa cards in the United States. These products are available at more than 60,000 retail stores. Green Dot also transfers individuals’ direct deposit funds (such as Social Security payments) from the US government to personal bank accounts.

Green Dot also said it had profit of four cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 21 cents per share, surpassing Wall Street expectations. Nine analysts earlier surveyed by Zacks Investment Research estimated Green Dot’s earnings to be 17 cents per share.

The bank holding company posted revenues of $154.5 million for the third quarter, also surpassing Wall Street estimates. Seven analysts surveyed earlier said they expected earnings for the quarter to reach $151.8 million.

“Q3 was another solid quarter for Green Dot as the year is playing out along the thematic we laid out when we first provided full year guidance at the beginning of 2016,” Green Dot Founder and CEO Steve Streit said. “We also experienced stronger than expected bottom line performance in the quarter, driven by the success of our ongoing cost savings initiatives, combined with higher margin revenue from our legacy business lines. We’re pleased with our Company’s performance in both the quarter and year-to-date and believe we are well positioned to achieve our financial goals for the remainder of this year and in 2017.”

For the full year, Green Dot expects its earnings to be in the range of $708 million to $713 million.

Full-year earnings per share could finish above the midpoint of the previously guided range of $1.39 to $1.44, the company said.