Groupama Asset Managment Trims Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Groupama Asset Managment decreased its position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 9.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 14,018 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,401 shares during the quarter. Groupama Asset Managment’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $8,003,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 53,535.0% in the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 72,597,097 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $41,444,231,000 after purchasing an additional 72,461,743 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Mastercard during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $6,705,708,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its holdings in Mastercard by 861.6% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 4,072,210 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,324,743,000 after buying an additional 3,648,748 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Mastercard by 2.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 997,536 shares during the period. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp bought a new position in Mastercard in the fourth quarter worth approximately $497,311,000. 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. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $730.00 to $735.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on Mastercard from $656.00 to $629.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Susquehanna cut their price target on Mastercard from $670.00 to $665.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 1st. Truist Financial reduced their price target on Mastercard from $590.00 to $561.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $656.04.

Mastercard Stock Performance

MA opened at $490.73 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $433.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.40, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a fifty day moving average of $498.76 and a 200 day moving average of $521.76. Mastercard Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $464.52 and a fifty-two week high of $601.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.41 by $0.19. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.88% and a return on equity of 212.96%. The business had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.73 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be issued a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. Mastercard’s payout ratio is 20.14%.

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.