Morgan Stanley Has Lowered Expectations for Marqeta (NASDAQ:MQ) Stock Price

Marqeta (NASDAQ:MQ) had its price target lowered by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $6.00 to $5.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 27.55% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on MQ. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Marqeta from $5.75 to $5.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Wolfe Research lowered Marqeta from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Marqeta in a research note on Tuesday, February 17th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $6.00 price target for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reduced their price objective on shares of Marqeta from $6.00 to $5.50 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 2nd. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of Marqeta from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 20th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Marqeta presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $5.14.

Marqeta Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:MQ opened at $3.92 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $1.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -130.67 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a 50 day moving average of $4.42 and a 200-day moving average of $4.97. Marqeta has a one year low of $3.47 and a one year high of $7.04.

Marqeta (NASDAQ:MQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 24th. The company reported $0.00 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $172.11 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $167.05 million. Marqeta had a negative net margin of 2.23% and a negative return on equity of 1.62%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.05) earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Marqeta will post 0.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Jason M. Gardner sold 113,366 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.00, for a total value of $566,830.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 303,467 shares in the company, valued at $1,517,335. This represents a 27.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have sold a total of 218,509 shares of company stock valued at $1,092,545 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 12.61% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Marqeta

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MQ. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Marqeta during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. EFG International AG acquired a new position in Marqeta during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. CWM LLC boosted its holdings in Marqeta by 82.2% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,254 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 2,821 shares during the last quarter. Leonteq Securities AG bought a new position in Marqeta in the fourth quarter valued at $33,000. Finally, Amundi bought a new position in Marqeta in the fourth quarter valued at $48,000. Institutional investors own 78.64% of the company’s stock.

More Marqeta News

Here are the key news stories impacting Marqeta this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results beat Street expectations: break‑even EPS (vs. a loss expected) and revenue of $172.1M (+26.7% YoY), plus management highlighted record TPV and demand in BNPL/embedded finance — a clear near‑term positive for growth sentiment. MarketBeat Q4 coverage
• Positive Sentiment: Management set a 2026 gross‑profit growth target of 10%–12% and reiterated plans to expand value‑added services and Europe presence — guidance that supports revenue/operating leverage expectations if execution holds. Seeking Alpha: 2026 guidance
• Neutral Sentiment: Morgan Stanley trimmed its price target (from $6 to $5) and kept an equal‑weight rating — a modest analyst downgrade but still implies upside from current levels, so this is a mixed signal for investors. The Fly: Morgan Stanley PT cut
• Neutral Sentiment: Earnings materials and the full call transcript/slides are available for deeper read — useful for assessing unit economics, margin drivers, and timeline for the 2026 targets. (Call transcript and slide deck detail execution plans.) Seeking Alpha: Q4 transcript
• Negative Sentiment: TipRanks flagged a newly disclosed risk around restricted client cash at subsidiaries, highlighting potential regulatory, operational and cyber exposures that could create liabilities or capital constraints — a meaningful governance/operational risk for investors to monitor. TipRanks: restricted client cash risk
• Negative Sentiment: Halper Sadeh LLC announced an investor probe into whether Marqeta officers/directors breached fiduciary duties — potential litigation/board governance overhang that can weigh on sentiment until resolved. PR Newswire: Halper Sadeh probe
• Negative Sentiment: UBS reduced its price target (from $5 to $4.25) and assigned a neutral rating — another analyst cut that may cap short‑term upside and reflects caution around margins/risks. Benzinga: UBS PT cut

Marqeta Company Profile

Marqeta is a modern card issuing and payment processing platform that enables businesses to design, launch and manage customized payment cards. The company offers a fully programmable open API that allows clients to create virtual, physical and tokenized payment cards with real-time transaction controls and dynamic spend limits. By leveraging Marqeta’s infrastructure, companies can streamline their payment operations, reduce time to market and deliver tailored payment experiences to end consumers.

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Oakland, California, Marqeta was established by CEO Jason Gardner with the goal of transforming traditional card issuance through cloud-native technology.