Mastercard (NYSE:MA) Shares Up 0.8%

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) shares traded up 0.8% on Friday . The company traded as high as $496.00 and last traded at $494.96. 462,769 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 2,451,461 shares. The stock had previously closed at $491.27.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MA shares. Piper Sandler boosted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $531.00 to $536.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. BNP Paribas cut Mastercard from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $470.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on Mastercard from $535.00 to $540.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. William Blair raised Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, KeyCorp raised their target price on Mastercard from $490.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $513.70.

Mastercard Stock Up 0.4 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $455.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.35, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.10. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $469.79 and its 200 day moving average price is $461.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.95.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.59 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.51 by $0.08. Mastercard had a net margin of 46.45% and a return on equity of 179.78%. The business had revenue of $6.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.85 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.29 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th will be paid a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 9th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.99%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 4,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $493.10, for a total value of $2,310,173.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 17,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,440,885.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 4,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $493.10, for a total transaction of $2,310,173.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 17,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,440,885.80. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO J. Mehra Sachin sold 13,439 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.00, for a total value of $6,114,745.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 27,304 shares in the company, valued at $12,423,320. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 340,809 shares of company stock valued at $159,610,703. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Mastercard

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MA. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Mastercard in the 1st quarter worth about $660,652,000. PineStone Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 145.6% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,777,468 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $784,148,000 after purchasing an additional 1,053,616 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Mastercard by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,253,734 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $32,096,470,000 after purchasing an additional 742,076 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 3.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 21,041,685 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $8,974,478,000 after purchasing an additional 676,452 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its position in shares of Mastercard by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,608,023 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,803,956,000 after purchasing an additional 605,909 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Company Profile

Mastercard Incorporated, a technology company, provides transaction processing and other payment-related products and services in the United States and internationally. The company offers integrated products and value-added services for account holders, merchants, financial institutions, digital partners, businesses, governments, and other organizations, such as programs that enable issuers to provide consumers with credits to defer payments; payment products and solutions that allow its customers to access funds in deposit and other accounts; prepaid programs services; and commercial credit, debit, and prepaid payment products and solutions.