Maplebear Inc (dba Instacart) (CART)

[TRUISM]

3 STOCKS ON THEIR WAY TO DOUBLING IN 2024 - (EXCERPT)
Story by Rick Munarriz- MARCH 19, 2024
LINK

3. Instacart: Up 59%

I wasn't the only one initially hesitant when Instacart hit the market in the fall of last year. Did we really need another publicly traded player in the cutthroat world of third-party delivery apps? The market's initial reaction was a yawn. Instacart went public at $30, and that's exactly where it closed at the end of its first week of trading.

Business hasn't improved since its trading floor premiere. The same company with a prospectus that promoted a compound annual growth rate of 80% between 2018 and 2022 in its prospectus has slowed. Revenue rose just 19% in 2023, half of the growth it posted the year before. In its first quarter as a public company, sales rose a mere 6%, and it announced layoffs in February.

But Instacart knows a thing or two about the grocery aisle, and its saving grace is that its business model is already profitable. It also dominates its niche. Analysts see revenue growing a modest 8% this year and 9% come 2025, but they also see profitability improving sharply in that time. Don't obsess about the ingredients. Just enjoy the recipe.