Foster & Motley Inc. Acquires New Shares in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Foster & Motley Inc. bought a new position in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,143 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $587,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its position in Mastercard by 53,535.0% during 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the fourth quarter worth $6,705,708,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of 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 worth $2,324,743,000 after buying an additional 3,648,748 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 2.8% during 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 buying an additional 997,536 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp bought a new position in shares of Mastercard in the 4th quarter valued at $497,311,000. 97.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Raj Seshadri sold 4,828 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $8,625,225. The trade was a 22.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Linda Pistecchia Kirkpatrick sold 4,280 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $570.31, for a total transaction of $2,440,926.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 31,179 shares in the company, valued at $17,781,695.49. This represents a 12.07% 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. Over the last three months, insiders sold 71,357 shares of company stock valued at $40,637,262. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on Mastercard from $629.00 to $642.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Piper Sandler began coverage on Mastercard in a research report on Monday, June 29th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $597.00 target price for the company. TD Cowen lifted their price target on Mastercard from $664.00 to $667.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Clear Str upgraded Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Loop Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $631.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Mastercard presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $664.71.

Mastercard Price Performance

Shares of MA opened at $598.69 on Wednesday. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52-week low of $464.52 and a 52-week high of $601.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.06. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $542.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $518.46. The firm has a market cap of $524.46 billion, a PE ratio of 32.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.72.

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

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th were issued 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 19.14%.

Mastercard 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.