Head-To-Head Contrast: Green Dot (NYSE:GDOT) vs. Marqeta (NASDAQ:MQ)

Green Dot (NYSE:GDOT) and Marqeta (NASDAQ:MQ) are both small-cap business services companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, earnings, risk, profitability, analyst recommendations, dividends and valuation.

Volatility & Risk

Green Dot has a beta of 0.81, meaning that its stock price is 19% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Marqeta has a beta of 1.39, meaning that its stock price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and target prices for Green Dot and Marqeta, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Green Dot	2	4	1	0	1.86
Marqeta	2	9	1	0	1.92

Green Dot currently has a consensus price target of $13.56, suggesting a potential upside of 14.84%. Marqeta has a consensus price target of $5.14, suggesting a potential upside of 26.57%. Given Marqeta’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Marqeta is more favorable than Green Dot.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Green Dot and Marqeta”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Green Dot	$2.08 billion	0.32	-$98.87 million	($1.78)	-6.63
Marqeta	$624.88 million	2.78	-$13.93 million	($0.03)	-135.33

Marqeta has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Green Dot. Marqeta is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Green Dot, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.6% of Green Dot shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.6% of Marqeta shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Green Dot shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 12.6% of Marqeta shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Green Dot and Marqeta’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Green Dot	-4.75%	6.93%	1.10%
Marqeta	-2.23%	-1.62%	-1.00%

Summary

Marqeta beats Green Dot on 8 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Green Dot

Green Dot Corporation, a financial technology and registered bank holding company, provides various financial services to consumers and businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Consumer Services, Business to Business Services, and Money Movement Services. The company provides deposit account programs, including consumer and small business checking account products, network-branded reloadable prepaid debit cards and gift cards, and secured credit programs. It offers money processing services, such as cash transfer services that enable consumers to deposit or pick up cash and pay bills with cash at the point-of-sale at any participating retailer; and simply paid disbursement services, which enable wages and authorized funds disbursement to its deposit account programs and accounts issued by any third-party bank or program manager. In addition, the company offers tax processing services comprising tax refund transfers, which provide the processing technology to facilitate receipt of a taxpayers' refund proceeds; small business lending to independent tax preparation providers that seek small advances; and fast cash advance, a loan that enables tax refund recipients. Green Dot Corporation was incorporated in 1999 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About Marqeta

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. Marqeta, Inc. was incorporated in 2010 and is headquartered in Oakland, California.