Mastercard Incorporated $MA Holdings Raised by Vest Financial LLC

Vest Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 4.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 101,584 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,917 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $52,174,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. 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 valued at $41,444,231,000 after purchasing an additional 72,461,743 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Mastercard in the 4th quarter worth about $6,705,708,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its position in Mastercard by 861.6% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 3,648,748 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,580,374 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $20,807,283,000 after purchasing an additional 997,536 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the 4th quarter worth about $497,311,000. 97.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $640.00 to $670.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald lifted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $650.00 to $695.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $629.00 to $642.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $632.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $661.93.

Insider Activity at Mastercard

In related news, insider J. Mehra Sachin sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $571.87, for a total transaction of $1,715,610.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 40,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,398,632.92. The trade was a 6.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Raj Seshadri sold 1,977 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.73, for a total value of $1,047,276.21. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at $8,702,934.17. This trade represents a 10.74% decrease in their position. 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 sold 62,913 shares of company stock valued at $35,769,036. 0.09% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Mastercard Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of Mastercard stock opened at $563.01 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $493.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.97, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $531.91 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $516.78. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12-month low of $464.52 and a 12-month high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The credit services provider reported $5.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.77 by $0.27. The business had revenue of $9.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.08 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 46.34% and a return on equity of 239.99%. Mastercard’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $4.15 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

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

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.