Mastercard Incorporated $MA Shares Sold by Welch & Forbes LLC

Welch & Forbes LLC decreased its holdings in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 9.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,353 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,303 shares during the quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $6,172,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its stake in shares of 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 during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Mastercard in the fourth quarter valued at about $6,705,708,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. boosted its holdings in 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 boosted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp acquired a new position in Mastercard during the fourth quarter worth about $497,311,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $671.00 to $664.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. BNP Paribas Exane raised Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. Barclays initiated coverage on Mastercard in a report on Wednesday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $640.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut Mastercard from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Piper Sandler initiated coverage on Mastercard in a research report on Monday, June 29th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $597.00 target price on the stock. Seven equities 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Mastercard presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $653.78.

Mastercard Price Performance

Shares of MA traded up $2.94 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $526.14. 1,616,894 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,819,577. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52-week low of $464.52 and a 52-week high of $601.77. The company has a market cap of $464.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.45, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $499.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $517.53.

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

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.14%.

Insider Transactions at Mastercard

In related news, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 200 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $540.00, for a total transaction of $108,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 3,322 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,793,880. This trade represents a 5.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed 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 business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.73, for a total transaction of $1,047,276.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,702,934.17. The trade was 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. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 7,005 shares of company stock valued at $3,689,976. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Key Mastercard News

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Barclays upgraded Mastercard to strong-buy, adding to the bullish analyst backdrop and reinforcing confidence in the company’s long-term growth outlook.
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard launched Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M), a platform designed to enable secure AI-agent and machine-to-machine payments, which could open a new growth avenue in emerging digital commerce. Mastercard (MA) Launches AP4M To Bring AI Agent Payments Onchain
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard and VEON announced a partnership to expand financial services across several markets, highlighting continued international expansion and transaction-network growth potential. VEON (VEON), Mastercard (MA) Partner to Expand Financial Services
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts still expect strong fundamentals, and recent commentary emphasized Mastercard’s resilient operations and earnings-growth forecasts, which helped support the stock despite technical weakness.
• Neutral Sentiment: Mastercard will report second-quarter 2026 results on July 30, keeping investors focused on payment-volume trends, margins, and whether growth can justify the valuation. Mastercard Incorporated to Host Conference Call on Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results
• Neutral Sentiment: An insider sale of 200 shares was disclosed, but it was a small pre-planned transaction under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, so it is not a major signal by itself.
• Negative Sentiment: Mastercard’s move below its 200-day moving average may be weighing on sentiment, as traders often view that level as a key technical support point.
• Negative Sentiment: Broader concerns around stablecoin competition, regulatory fee pressure, and alternative payment rails could pressure legacy card-network stocks like Mastercard and Visa.

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.