Flossbach Von Storch SE Takes $275.07 Million Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Flossbach Von Storch SE purchased a new stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 535,581 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $275,074,000. Mastercard accounts for approximately 1.2% of Flossbach Von Storch SE’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of MA. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its position in Mastercard by 53,535.0% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 72,597,097 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $41,444,231,000 after acquiring an additional 72,461,743 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 997,536 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Mastercard by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,686,605 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $11,773,153,000 after purchasing an additional 349,369 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 17,964,658 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $10,256,368,000 after acquiring an additional 759,584 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised its position in Mastercard by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 16,046,550 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $9,160,657,000 after purchasing an additional 123,528 shares during the period. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $632.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Friday, July 31st. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $640.00 to $670.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Clear Str upgraded Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $554.00 to $633.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler initiated coverage on Mastercard in a research note on Monday, June 29th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $597.00 price objective for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have given a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Mastercard currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $664.71.

Mastercard Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of MA opened at $598.69 on Wednesday. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $464.52 and a twelve month high of $601.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $524.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $542.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $518.46.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 business had revenue of $9.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.08 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 239.99% and a net margin of 46.34%.The company’s revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $4.15 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Mastercard

In related news, insider Linda Pistecchia Kirkpatrick sold 4,280 shares of Mastercard 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 sale, the insider owned 31,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,781,695.49. The trade was a 12.07% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $540.00, for a total transaction of $108,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 3,322 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,793,880. The trade was a 5.68% 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 71,357 shares of company stock valued at $40,637,262. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.