Stock Story -
Leading edge card issuer Marqeta (NASDAQ: NASDAQ:MQ) will be reporting earnings tomorrow after market close. Here's what to look for.
Marqeta met analysts' revenue expectations last quarter, reporting revenues of $118 million, down 45.7% year on year. It was a very strong quarter for the company, with an impressive beat of analysts' total payment volume estimates and a meaningful improvement in its gross margin.
Is Marqeta a buy or sell going into earnings? Find out by reading the original article on StockStory, it's free.
This quarter, analysts are expecting Marqeta's revenue to decline 47.4% year on year to $121.5 million, a reversal from the 23.8% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.04 per share.
The majority of analysts covering the company have reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. Marqeta has a history of exceeding Wall Street's expectations, beating revenue estimates every single time over the past two years by 5.1% on average.
Looking at Marqeta's peers in the finance and HR software segment, some have already reported their Q2 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Workiva (NYSE:WK) delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 14.5%, beating analysts' expectations by 1.3%, and Paychex (NASDAQ:PAYX) reported revenues up 5.3%, in line with consensus estimates. Workiva's stock price was unchanged after the results, while Paychex was down 5.7%.
Read the full analysis of Workiva's and Paychex's results on StockStory.
Stocks, especially growth stocks where cash flows further in the future are more important to the story, had a good end of 2023. But 2024 has seen more volatile stock performance thanks to mixed inflation data, and while some of the finance and HR software stocks have fared somewhat better, they have not been spared, with share prices down 6% on average over the last month. Marqeta is down 12% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $7.4 (compared to the current share price of $4.78).
