1,465 Shares in Mastercard Incorporated $MA Bought by Madison Asset Management LLC

Madison Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 1,465 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $752,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd raised its position in Mastercard by 7.3% during the first quarter. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd now owns 139,844 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $70,089,000 after buying an additional 9,504 shares during the period. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan increased its holdings in Mastercard by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan now owns 65,414 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $37,344,000 after buying an additional 3,768 shares during the last quarter. Marble Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Mastercard during the 4th quarter valued at $1,328,000. Charles Lim Capital Ltd bought a new position in Mastercard during the fourth quarter valued at about $15,699,000. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 28,205 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $14,093,000 after acquiring an additional 1,434 shares in the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on Mastercard from $650.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $664.00 to $667.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Mastercard from $629.00 to $642.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Wolfe Research boosted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $680.00 to $740.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $664.71.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MA opened at $598.69 on Wednesday. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52 week low of $464.52 and a 52 week high of $601.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.06. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $542.94 and a 200 day moving average price of $518.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $524.46 billion, a PE ratio of 32.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.72.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. Mastercard had a return on equity of 239.99% and a net margin of 46.34%.The firm had revenue of $9.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $4.15 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Mastercard news, insider Raj Seshadri sold 4,828 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $525.00, for a total value of $2,534,700.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at $8,625,225. This trade represents a 22.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 200 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $540.00, for a total value of $108,000.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 3,322 shares in the company, valued at $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. Insiders have sold 71,357 shares of company stock valued at $40,637,262 over the last 90 days. 0.09% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.