Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) Given Average Rating of “Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) have received a consensus rating of “Buy” from the twenty-nine brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, twenty-two have issued a buy recommendation and five have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $662.08.

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on MA. Compass Point upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $620.00 to $735.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $713.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Macquarie upped their price target on Mastercard from $655.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st.

Mastercard Trading Down 0.5%

NYSE MA opened at $539.82 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $484.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.86. Mastercard has a twelve month low of $465.59 and a twelve month high of $601.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40. The business’s fifty day moving average is $556.89 and its 200 day moving average is $566.36.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.31 by $0.07. Mastercard had a return on equity of 202.03% and a net margin of 45.28%.The firm had revenue of $8.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.53 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.89 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Mastercard will post 15.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 9th. Investors of record on Friday, January 9th will be issued a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 9th. This is a boost from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 22.25%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MA. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in Mastercard during the second quarter valued at $11,421,213,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 13,397,168 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the 2nd quarter valued at about $6,725,317,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Mastercard by 25.6% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,372,404 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,580,909,000 after purchasing an additional 1,299,977 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its stake in Mastercard by 2.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,580,374 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $20,807,283,000 after purchasing an additional 997,536 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

About Mastercard

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.