Mastercard Incorporated $MA Shares Sold by Secured Retirement Advisors LLC

Secured Retirement Advisors LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 23.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,547 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,110 shares during the period. Mastercard accounts for approximately 1.1% of Secured Retirement Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Secured Retirement Advisors LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $2,018,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MA. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Mastercard by 1.2% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,475,807 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $44,098,695,000 after purchasing an additional 931,132 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mastercard in the 2nd quarter valued at $11,421,213,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,760,552 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $11,062,509,000 after buying an additional 542,841 shares in the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Mastercard by 55,868.1% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,421,148 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $7,541,880,000 after buying an additional 13,397,168 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Mastercard during the 2nd quarter worth $6,725,317,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on MA. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Mastercard from $638.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $665.00 target price on Mastercard and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $713.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, December 14th. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mastercard presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $657.48.

Mastercard Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MA opened at $579.38 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $555.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $565.87. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1-year low of $465.59 and a 1-year high of $601.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a market cap of $520.28 billion, a PE ratio of 37.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.87.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.31 by $0.07. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.28% and a return on equity of 202.03%. The company had revenue of $8.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.89 EPS. Mastercard’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 9th. Investors of record on Friday, January 9th will be given a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 9th. This is an increase from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s payout ratio is 19.44%.

Mastercard Profile

Mastercard Incorporated is a global payments technology company that operates a network connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 200 countries and territories. The company facilitates electronic payments and transaction processing for credit, debit and prepaid card products carrying the Mastercard brand, while also providing a range of payment-related services to issuers, acquirers and merchants. Its technology and network enable authorization, clearing and settlement of payments and support a broad set of use cases including point-of-sale, e-commerce and mobile payments.

Beyond core transaction processing, Mastercard offers a suite of value-added services such as fraud and risk management, identity and authentication tools, tokenization and digital wallet support, cross-border and commercial payment solutions, and data analytics and consulting services for merchants and financial partners.