Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 443,116 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $227,584,000. Mastercard accounts for 2.9% of Manning & Napier Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th largest position.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd grew its stake in Mastercard by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd now owns 139,844 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $70,089,000 after buying an additional 9,504 shares during the last quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan lifted its position in Mastercard by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan now owns 65,414 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $37,344,000 after acquiring an additional 3,768 shares during the last quarter. Marble Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Mastercard during the 4th quarter worth $1,328,000. Charles Lim Capital Ltd bought a new stake in Mastercard during the fourth quarter valued at about $15,699,000. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 5.4% during the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 28,205 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $14,093,000 after acquiring an additional 1,434 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Stock Down 0.2%

NYSE MA opened at $598.35 on Thursday. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $464.52 and a twelve month high of $601.62. The stock has a market cap of $524.16 billion, a PE ratio of 32.91, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $545.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $518.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.06.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The credit services provider reported $5.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.77 by $0.27. The firm had revenue of $9.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.08 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 239.99% and a net margin of 46.34%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $4.15 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.86 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th were given a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s payout ratio is currently 19.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Mastercard news, insider J. Mehra Sachin sold 7,444 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.13, for a total transaction of $4,296,155.72. Following the sale, the insider owned 40,916 shares in the company, valued at $23,613,851.08. The trade was a 15.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Raj Seshadri sold 4,828 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $525.00, for a total transaction of $2,534,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at $8,625,225. This trade represents a 22.71% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 71,357 shares of company stock valued at $40,637,262 in the last ninety days. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $632.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Barclays increased their target price on Mastercard from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Wall Street Zen downgraded Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Weiss Ratings upgraded Mastercard from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Mastercard from $665.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mastercard has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $664.71.

Mastercard Company 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.