** Shares of grocery delivery firm Instacart , formally known as Maplebear, down 2.5% at $36.98 premarket
** Brokerage BTIG downgrades stock to "neutral" from "buy"; retains PT at $55
** Warns of intensifying competition amid a spate of grocery delivery deals between several partners of CART and delivery platforms such as Amazon.com AMZN.O, DoorDash DASH.O, and Uber UBER.N
** Notes that grocers who have signed partnerships in the last two weeks make up more than 25% of CART's gross order volume (GOV)
** With AMZN, DASH and UBER focused on grocery category, it is difficult to underwrite sustained double-digit growth or even high-single-digit GOV growth for CART over a multi-year period, BTIG analyst Jake Fuller says
** 18 of 35 brokerages rate the stock "buy" or higher, 16 "hold" and one "sell"; with a median PT of $58- data compiled by LSEG
** As of last close, CART down ~8% YTD
(Reporting by Sanskriti Shekhar)
((Sanskriti.Shekhar@thomsonreuters.com))