What happened
Next-generation payment card processing specialist Marqeta (MQ 2.76%) was a dud in Friday's stock market. Following the publication of a new, bearish analysis on the company, its shares headed south and ultimately closed down by more than 5% on the day.
So what
KeyBanc analyst Josh Beck didn't get Marqeta's Friday off to a good start. This morning, he lowered his price target on the stock significantly; he now believes it is worth $25 per share, well down from his previous $38. Importantly, however, he maintained his overweight (buy) recommendation.
The reasons for Beck's lower price target weren't immediately clear.
Image source: Getty Images.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, Mizuho prognosticator Dan Dolev published a research note in which he upped his recommendation from neutral to buy -- although he sliced his price target from $27 to $20 in the process.
Dolev's research indicates that Marqeta is seeing a recent uptick in volumes from its top clients (excluding star fintech Block). In his opinion, this isn't being reflected in the stock price because the company doesn't break out such statistics for this client category.
Meanwhile, Truist analyst Andrew Jeffrey last week cut his price target on Marqeta to $30 from $40, but like KeyBanc's Beck, he's maintaining his buy recommendation. Jeffrey's lower price target is due to "higher growth equity risk premiums," but he believes the company is poised to take advantage of growing adaptation of point-of-sale software and other forms of modern financial transactions.
Now what
We can consider these cuts in price targets to be adjustments more than anything else. The key takeaway here is that all three analysts are still quite bullish on Marqeta's prospects. This stands to reason, as the company is well positioned to capitalize on developments in the ever-evolving world of payment processing.
