Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Marqeta (NASDAQ:MQ)

Marqeta, Inc. (NASDAQ:MQ) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Investors acquired 8,064 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 134% compared to the average volume of 3,450 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on MQ shares. Mizuho cut their price objective on Marqeta from $7.00 to $5.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their price target on shares of Marqeta from $4.50 to $4.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $4.00 price objective (down previously from $5.00) on shares of Marqeta in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Marqeta from $5.00 to $4.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, KeyCorp cut shares of Marqeta from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Marqeta currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $5.65.

Institutional Trading of Marqeta

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MQ. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Marqeta during the 4th quarter valued at about $72,879,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Marqeta by 5,396.3% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 18,169,103 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,862,000 after purchasing an additional 17,838,535 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Marqeta by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 11,031,591 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,819,000 after purchasing an additional 318,184 shares during the period. RPD Fund Management LLC acquired a new position in Marqeta during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $37,289,000. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its position in Marqeta by 4.0% in the third quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 8,333,453 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,001,000 after buying an additional 319,661 shares during the period. 78.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Marqeta Trading Up 18.7 %

MQ stock traded up $0.66 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $4.17. 10,287,715 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,718,355. Marqeta has a twelve month low of $3.37 and a twelve month high of $7.36. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $3.76 and a 200 day simple moving average of $4.40. The company has a market capitalization of $2.09 billion, a PE ratio of 209.25 and a beta of 1.52.

Marqeta (NASDAQ:MQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The company reported ($0.05) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.10) by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $135.79 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $132.71 million. Marqeta had a return on equity of 1.20% and a net margin of 2.86%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Marqeta will post 0.06 earnings per share for the current year.

Marqeta Company Profile

Marqeta, Inc operates a cloud-based open application programming interface platform that delivers card issuing and transaction processing services. It offers its solutions in various verticals, including financial services, on-demand services, expense management, and e-commerce enablement, as well as buy now, pay later.