Rafferty Asset Management LLC Purchases 5,295 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Rafferty Asset Management LLC grew its position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 2.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 275,343 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,295 shares during the quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $156,618,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. grew its holdings in Mastercard by 20.0% during the 2nd quarter. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. now owns 108 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the period. Zullo Investment Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Mastercard by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Zullo Investment Group Inc. now owns 1,091 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $621,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Mastercard by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Alpine Bank Wealth Management now owns 1,817 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,034,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC boosted its position in shares of Mastercard by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 841 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $479,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robbins Farley increased its holdings in Mastercard by 50.0% in the third quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 54 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $739.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. TD Cowen boosted their target price 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. Evercore set a $610.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $656.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group set a $610.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mastercard has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $669.27.

Mastercard Stock Performance

MA opened at $515.92 on Friday. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1-year low of $465.59 and a 1-year high of $601.77. The company has a market cap of $460.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.23, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $545.00 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $559.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its 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. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.65% and a return on equity of 203.92%. The company had revenue of $8.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.80 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.82 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is 21.07%.

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.