Abacus Wealth Partners LLC Purchases Shares of 421 Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

Abacus Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 421 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MA. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Mastercard in the first quarter valued at about $660,652,000. PineStone Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 145.6% in the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Mastercard by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 75,253,734 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $32,096,470,000 after buying an additional 742,076 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the second quarter worth approximately $259,071,000. Finally, Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Mastercard in the first quarter valued at approximately $203,198,000. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have commented on MA. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $500.00 to $526.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $520.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Oppenheimer began coverage on Mastercard in a research note on Tuesday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $591.00 price target for the company. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $535.00 to $540.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $500.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $517.22.

Mastercard Trading Down 0.1 %

Mastercard stock opened at $494.94 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $475.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $462.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $460.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.34, a PEG ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.14. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52 week low of $359.77 and a 52 week high of $501.80.

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

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.66 per share. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 9th. Mastercard’s payout ratio is 20.99%.

Insider Activity at Mastercard

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