Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) Receives Average Rating of “Buy” from Analysts

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) has received a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the thirty-one ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, twenty-five have issued a buy recommendation and five have assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $666.6429.

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on Mastercard from $650.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Truist Financial boosted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $554.00 to $633.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Mastercard from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $640.00 to $670.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Wolfe Research lifted their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $680.00 to $740.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 25th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mastercard

In other news, insider Raj Seshadri sold 1,977 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.73, for a total value of $1,047,276.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,702,934.17. This trade represents a 10.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Linda Pistecchia Kirkpatrick sold 4,280 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.31, for a total transaction of $2,440,926.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 31,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,781,695.49. The trade was a 12.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 71,357 shares of company stock worth $40,637,262 in the last three months. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Mastercard

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 42.3% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,824 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,594,000 after purchasing an additional 2,028 shares in the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. raised its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 2,548 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,432,000 after buying an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Betterment LLC lifted its position in Mastercard by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. Betterment LLC now owns 947 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $532,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC lifted its position in Mastercard by 35.8% in the 2nd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 677,204 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $380,548,000 after buying an additional 178,387 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Mastercard in the second quarter worth approximately $431,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Stock Down 1.4%

MA opened at $580.95 on Friday. Mastercard has a twelve month low of $464.52 and a twelve month high of $601.62. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $553.09 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $520.16. The stock has a market cap of $508.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.96, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The credit services provider reported $5.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.77 by $0.27. Mastercard had a return on equity of 239.99% and a net margin of 46.34%.The business had revenue of $9.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.08 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.15 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Mastercard will post 19.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

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

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.