Clare Market Investments LLC Buys New Stake in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Clare Market Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 1,238 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $618,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MA. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Mastercard by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,897,854 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $45,612,087,000 after buying an additional 466,514 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its holdings 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 valued at $41,444,231,000 after purchasing an additional 72,461,743 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew 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 buying an additional 997,536 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,686,605 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $11,773,153,000 after buying an additional 349,369 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 4.4% in the fourth 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 last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Mastercard Stock Performance

MA stock opened at $538.66 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $497.92 and its 200-day moving average is $518.61. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56. The company has a market cap of $475.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.73. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $464.52 and a twelve month high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.41 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.26 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 212.96% and a net margin of 45.88%.The firm’s revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.73 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.61 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 9th will be given a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date is 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 is currently 20.14%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on MA. Wall Street Zen cut Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. TD Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $654.58.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Mastercard news, insider Raj Seshadri sold 1,977 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.73, for a total transaction of $1,047,276.21. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,702,934.17. The trade was a 10.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

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.