Marqeta, Inc. (NASDAQ:MQ) Short Interest Up 21.4% in May

Marqeta, Inc. (NASDAQ:MQ) saw a significant increase in short interest in the month of May. As of May 15th, there was short interest totalling 12,920,000 shares, an increase of 21.4% from the April 30th total of 10,640,000 shares. Currently, 3.4% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 8,470,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MQ. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Marqeta by 126.2% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 41,097,173 shares of the company’s stock worth $169,322,000 after acquiring an additional 22,928,070 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Marqeta during the 4th quarter worth approximately $72,879,000. RPD Fund Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Marqeta during the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,289,000. Wellington Management Group LLP bought a new stake in Marqeta in the 4th quarter valued at $19,717,000. Finally, North Reef Capital Management LP boosted its stake in Marqeta by 99.7% in the 4th quarter. North Reef Capital Management LP now owns 7,786,999 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,513,000 after purchasing an additional 3,886,999 shares during the period. 78.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on MQ shares. UBS Group raised their price target on Marqeta from $4.75 to $5.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Barclays lifted their target price on Marqeta from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Marqeta from $4.00 to $4.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Marqeta from $4.50 to $4.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Marqeta from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $5.00 to $6.00 in a research report on Monday, May 19th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Marqeta currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $5.18.

Marqeta Stock Up 2.2%

MQ stock opened at $5.50 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $4.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.08. The company has a market cap of $2.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 275.00 and a beta of 1.53. Marqeta has a twelve month low of $3.37 and a twelve month high of $6.00.

Marqeta (NASDAQ:MQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported ($0.02) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.05) by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $139.07 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $135.66 million. Marqeta had a return on equity of 1.20% and a net margin of 2.86%. The business’s revenue was up 17.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.07) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Marqeta will post 0.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Marqeta

Marqeta, Inc operates a cloud-based open application programming interface platform that delivers card issuing and transaction processing services. It offers its solutions in various verticals, including financial services, on-demand services, expense management, and e-commerce enablement, as well as buy now, pay later.