Citigroup Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Citigroup Inc. cut its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 7.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 848,371 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 70,851 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $482,562,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its stake in Mastercard by 42.3% in the fourth 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 during the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. lifted its stake 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 worth $1,432,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 6.6% during the 2nd quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC now owns 453 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $254,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the period. Strategic Blueprint LLC boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Strategic Blueprint LLC now owns 4,444 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,497,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the period. Finally, KPP Advisory Services LLC grew its position in Mastercard by 6.6% in the 2nd quarter. KPP Advisory Services LLC now owns 485 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $273,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MA. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $739.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $668.00 to $671.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $690.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Macquarie Infrastructure lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $660.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Mastercard from $665.00 to $678.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $669.27.

Mastercard Stock Up 1.1%

Mastercard stock opened at $525.94 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. The firm has a market cap of $472.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.84, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a fifty day moving average of $551.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $561.73. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $465.59 and a twelve month high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.52. The firm had revenue of $8.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.80 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 203.92% and a net margin of 45.65%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.82 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.07%.

Key Stories Impacting Mastercard

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic cybersecurity partnership with Cloudflare positions Mastercard to sell security tools to small businesses and strengthen transaction security — a potential new revenue stream and cross‑sell opportunity that supports longer‑term growth. Cloudflare, Inc. (NET) and Mastercard Incorporated Announce Strategic Cybersecurity Partnership
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard is tapping telecom partners to reach ~120 million potential customers — a distribution play that can grow prepaid and mobile-first payment penetration in emerging markets. Mastercard Taps Telecoms for 120M Potential Customers
• Positive Sentiment: Local rollout wins: Mastercard enabled Google Pay for cardholders in Saudi Arabia and partnered with Grameenphone in Bangladesh — both moves expand tap‑to‑pay and digital wallet adoption in growth markets. Mastercard enables Google Pay for cardholders in Saudi Arabia
• Positive Sentiment: Product innovation: Mastercard highlights a move toward “agentic AI” — shifting from recommendation to automated action — which could improve fraud prevention, merchant solutions, and customer experiences over time. “We Are Moving From AI Systems That Recommend to That Act”: Mastercard on Agentic AI
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage pieces reinforce Mastercard’s long-term performance narrative (e.g., 10‑year return retrospectives and momentum stock write‑ups) — useful for sentiment but low immediate impact on fundamentals. $1000 Invested In Mastercard 10 Years Ago Would Be Worth This Much Today
• Neutral Sentiment: Additional reporting explains how Mastercard and Cloudflare will fight cyber threats — supports the partnership narrative but is incremental to the main announcement. How are Mastercard and Cloudfare Fighting Cyber Threats?
• Negative Sentiment: Critical analysis in the Financial Times argues the UK has become overly dependent on Mastercard, highlighting regulatory and political scrutiny risks that could translate into higher compliance costs or policy headwinds. How the UK accidentally shackled itself to Mastercard

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.