What happened
The bears keep pawing away at the stock of Marqeta (MQ 1.48%). Following a series of hits the company took last week and on Monday, investors traded the shares down Tuesday after a new price-target cut from an analyst. By the end of the trading day, the stock had fallen more than 4%.
So what
The price-target cutter in question was JPMorgan Chase's (JPM 0.65%) Tien-tsin Huang, who now says that Marqeta stock is worth $12 per share. That's a bit down from his former level of $14.
The reasons for Huang's adjustment weren't immediately clear, but we can make a pretty good stab at them. Marqeta's stock has been reeling since the fintech revealed last Thursday that two of its executives are departing: founder and CEO Jason Gardner, and chief operating officer Vidya Peters. Compounding this, the company gave no indication as to why both are exiting.
Investors don't like mysteries with their companies, nor do analysts. In the wake of the sudden leadership change, several analysts were quick to reduce their price targets or even chop their recommendations. One of the latter was Jeff Cantwell of Wells Fargo (WFC 2.73%), who now ranks the stock as equal weight (i.e., hold); previously he believed it was a buy.
"We do like the [long-term] story," Cantwell wrote in a fresh research note, "but this is a material management transition, plus the fundamental backdrop looks like it is weakening from here."
Now what
So Marqeta has two specters looming over it: the uncertainty around the executive exits, and the broader worry of a sputtering economy. It's understandable, then, that many investors are currently having doubts about the stock.
