What happened?
Marqeta (MQ +0.35%) stock leapt 38.3% in October, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence, as the company announced several important partnership deals. Marqeta is one of the most dynamic fintech stocks on the market today. It allows its customers to issue customized payment tools such as debit and rewards cards. These include physical and virtual cards, both of which are playing an important role as e-commerce, employee compensation, and transfers evolve. The recent announcements are proof that Marqeta is gaining traction with cryptocurrency, small businesses, and enterprise corporate cards, all of which are important categories for future growth.
So what?
During the month, investors learned that Marqeta was rolling out spending and rewards products for the cryptocurrency industry, with Coinbase among the high-profile customers. Coinbase issues Visa debit cards to account holders, allowing them to make purchases with their crypto holdings. That feature, which is popular with the company's users, is enabled by Marqeta.
Marqeta also announced partnerships with Uber Technologies and Bill.com, expanding the company's presence in small business and enterprise categories. Fintech is rapidly changing the way that businesses, financial institutions, and consumers interact with one another. Marqeta has firmly positioned itself as a facilitator of those trends. Its virtual card products are also helping debit cards keep up with the times as digital payments are slowly replacing physical card transactions.
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Now what?
Marqeta is looking at roughly 50% revenue growth this year, and analysts are expecting about 30% expansion next year. The company isn't profitable, but it operates around cash flow breakeven. Its price-to-sales ratio above 40 is normal for a promising growth stock, but that opens the door to downside risk if there are any concerning threats to its assumed trajectory.
We've seen that volatility play out over the past two months. Marqeta's 38% gain in October was definitely an extreme swing, but most of those gains were actually a recovery from the stock's 24% decline in September.
These announcements were great news, and Marqeta is primed to address lucrative new opportunities. That said, these announcements haven't changed anything concrete about the company's financial results quite yet, and it remains a speculative buy. It's an interesting stock if you're looking for high long-term upside and you can handle volatility. Risk-averse investors can probably find something more suitable out there.
