The Marqeta, Inc. (NASDAQ:MQ) share price has fared very poorly over the last month, falling by a substantial 26%. Instead of being rewarded, shareholders who have already held through the last twelve months are now sitting on a 36% share price drop.

Even after such a large drop in price, when almost half of the companies in the United States' Diversified Financial industry have price-to-sales ratios (or "P/S") below 2.7x, you may still consider Marqeta as a stock probably not worth researching with its 3.8x P/S ratio. Nonetheless, we'd need to dig a little deeper to determine if there is a rational basis for the elevated P/S.

What Does Marqeta's Recent Performance Look Like?

Marqeta could be doing better as its revenue has been going backwards lately while most other companies have been seeing positive revenue growth. One possibility is that the P/S ratio is high because investors think this poor revenue performance will turn the corner. If not, then existing shareholders may be extremely nervous about the viability of the share price.

What Are Revenue Growth Metrics Telling Us About The High P/S?

Marqeta's P/S ratio would be typical for a company that's expected to deliver solid growth, and importantly, perform better than the industry.

Retrospectively, the last year delivered a frustrating 36% decrease to the company's top line. This has soured the latest three-year period, which nevertheless managed to deliver a decent 8.9% overall rise in revenue. So we can start by confirming that the company has generally done a good job of growing revenue over that time, even though it had some hiccups along the way.

Shifting to the future, estimates from the analysts covering the company suggest revenue should grow by 20% per year over the next three years. That's shaping up to be materially higher than the 8.6% each year growth forecast for the broader industry.

With this in mind, it's not hard to understand why Marqeta's P/S is high relative to its industry peers. Apparently shareholders aren't keen to offload something that is potentially eyeing a more prosperous future.

What Does Marqeta's P/S Mean For Investors?

Despite the recent share price weakness, Marqeta's P/S remains higher than most other companies in the industry. We'd say the price-to-sales ratio's power isn't primarily as a valuation instrument but rather to gauge current investor sentiment and future expectations.

As we suspected, our examination of Marqeta's analyst forecasts revealed that its superior revenue outlook is contributing to its high P/S. Right now shareholders are comfortable with the P/S as they are quite confident future revenues aren't under threat. It's hard to see the share price falling strongly in the near future under these circumstances.

Don't forget that there may be other risks. For instance, we've identified 3 warning signs for Marqeta (1 is concerning) you should be aware of.

If you're unsure about the strength of Marqeta's business, why not explore our interactive list of stocks with solid business fundamentals for some other companies you may have missed.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.