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Marqeta (NASDAQ:MQ) Delivers Strong Q3 Numbers, Stock Soars


Jabin Bastian /
2022/11/09 4:16 pm EST

Leading edge card issuer Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ) beat analyst expectations in Q3 FY2022 quarter, with revenue up 45.7% year on year to $191.6 million. Marqeta made a GAAP loss of $53.1 million, down on its loss of $45.7 million, in the same quarter last year.

Is now the time to buy Marqeta? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it's free.

Marqeta (MQ) Q3 FY2022 Highlights:

  • Revenue: $191.6 million vs analyst estimates of $180.9 million (5.92% beat)
  • EPS: -$0.10 vs analyst expectations of -$0.09 (6.55% miss)
  • Free cash flow was negative $4.78 million, down from positive free cash flow of $22.5 million in previous quarter
  • Gross Margin (GAAP): 41.8%, down from 44.9% same quarter last year

"This recent quarter serves as a great example of our continued success and the tremendous market opportunity in front of Marqeta. We signed innovative new customers in both the United States and Europe, we expanded our platform with the launch of new banking capabilities to complement our leadership in modern card issuing, and increased the global utility of our platform with our European data residency program," said Jason Gardner, Founder and CEO of Marqeta.

Founded by CEO Jason Gardner in 2009, Marqeta (NASDAQ: MQ) is an innovative card issuer that provides companies with the ability to issue and process virtual, physical, and tokenized credit and debit cards.

Consumers want the ability to make payments whenever and wherever they prefer – and to do so without having to worry about fraud or other security threats. However, building payments infrastructure from scratch is extremely resource-intensive for engineering teams. That drives demand for payments platforms that are easy to integrate into consumer applications and websites.

Sales Growth

As you can see below, Marqeta's revenue growth has been incredible over the last two years, growing from quarterly revenue of $84.3 million in Q3 FY2020, to $191.6 million.

Marqeta Total Revenue

And unsurprisingly, this was another great quarter for Marqeta with revenue up 45.7% year on year. But the growth did slow down compared to last quarter, as the revenue increased by just $4.94 million in Q3, compared to $20.5 million in Q2 2022. We'd like to see revenue increase by a greater amount each quarter, but a one-off fluctuation is usually not concerning.

Ahead of the earnings results the analysts covering the company were estimating sales to grow 25.5% over the next twelve months.

In volatile times like these we look for robust businesses with strong pricing power. Unknown to most investors, this company is one of the highest-quality software companies in the world, and their software products have been the default standard in critical industries for decades. The result is an impressive business that is up an incredible 18,152% since the IPO. You can find it on our platform for free.

Profitability

What makes the software as a service business so attractive is that once the software is developed, it typically shouldn't cost much to provide it as an ongoing service to customers. Marqeta's gross profit margin, an important metric measuring how much money there is left after paying for servers, licenses, technical support and other necessary running expenses was at 41.8% in Q3.

Marqeta Gross Margin (GAAP)

That means that for every $1 in revenue the company had $0.41 left to spend on developing new products, marketing & sales and the general administrative overhead. This would be considered a low gross margin for a SaaS company and we would like to see it start improving.

Key Takeaways from Marqeta's Q3 Results

With a market capitalization of $3.74 billion Marqeta is among smaller companies, but its more than $1.64 billion in cash and positive free cash flow over the last twelve months put it in a very strong position to invest in growth.

We were impressed by the exceptional revenue growth Marqeta delivered this quarter. And we were also excited to see that it outperformed Wall St’s revenue expectations. Overall, we think this was a really good quarter, that should leave shareholders feeling very positive. The company is up 5.13% on the results and currently trades at $6.55 per share.

Marqeta may have had a good quarter, so should you invest right now? It is important that you take into account its valuation and business qualities, as well as what happened in the latest quarter. We look at that in our actionable report which you can read here, it's free.

One way to find opportunities in the market is to watch for generational shifts in the economy. Almost every company is slowly finding itself becoming a technology company and facing cybersecurity risks and as a result, the demand for cloud-native cybersecurity is skyrocketing. This company is leading a massive technological shift in the industry and with revenue growth of 70% year on year and best-in-class SaaS metrics it should definitely be on your radar.

The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned.