Aug. 21 at 4:07 PM
Wedbush downgraded Maplebear Inc., parent of Instacart , to Underperform from Neutral, citing rising competition from Amazon’s same-day fresh grocery delivery, which could erode Instacart’s market share.
The firm cut its price target to
$42 from
$55 and lowered growth and earnings forecasts. It now sees 2026 gross transaction value rising 7.1% y/y—about 200 bps below its prior estimate—and adjusted EBITDA of
$1.2B, or a 29.5% margin.
While Instacart has shown solid transaction growth and stronger margins recently, Wedbush warned Amazon’s expansion makes Prime more appealing to grocery shoppers, posing a direct threat. Instacart’s intermediary grocery delivery share has already fallen to ~58% in 2024 from 70% two years ago.
Wedbush added that major retail partners may push more orders to their own delivery services, while Instacart could face higher marketing and incentive costs to defend its position, limiting long-term targets.
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