Forsta AP Fonden Sells 3,420 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Forsta AP Fonden trimmed its position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 1.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 252,923 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 3,420 shares during the quarter. Mastercard accounts for 0.9% of Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings, making the stock its 15th largest position. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $144,389,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,897,854 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $45,612,087,000 after acquiring an additional 466,514 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 997,536 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 349,369 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the 4th quarter worth $6,705,708,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 10,347,834 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,885,944,000 after acquiring an additional 629,941 shares during the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Mastercard

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard’s BitLicense approval strengthens its ability to build regulated digital asset, stablecoin, and blockchain-based payment infrastructure, which investors may see as a long-term growth opportunity. Mastercard BitLicense Approval Opens New Chapter In Digital Assets And Valuation
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage suggesting Mastercard is well positioned in the stablecoin battle, alongside peers like SoFi, Block, and Robinhood, highlights the company’s relevance in a fast-growing payments trend. How Mastercard, SoFi, Block are heating up the stablecoin battle
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain upbeat on Mastercard despite recent relative underperformance versus fintech peers, suggesting Wall Street still sees upside in the stock’s fundamentals and franchise strength. How Is Mastercard’s Stock Performance Compared to Other FinTech Stocks?
• Neutral Sentiment: Recent valuation-focused commentary notes Mastercard has pulled back from recent highs and trades at a premium multiple, which may keep some investors cautious even as the long-term outlook remains constructive. Mastercard (MA) Valuation Check After Recent Pullback And Premium P/E Multiple
• Neutral Sentiment: Mastercard also announced upcoming investor conference appearances, which is routine corporate communication rather than a major operating update. Mastercard to Participate in Upcoming Investor Conferences

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on MA shares. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $650.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $679.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a report on Friday, May 1st. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Daiwa Securities Group set a $610.00 price target on shares of Mastercard and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $730.00 to $735.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $656.04.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Mastercard stock opened at $494.45 on Friday. 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 capitalization of $436.89 billion, a PE ratio of 28.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.76. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $501.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $527.57. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $480.50 and a twelve month high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 45.88% and a return on equity of 212.96%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.73 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.6 EPS for the current year.

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.