Mastercard Incorporated $MA Shares Sold by Advocate Group LLC

Advocate Group LLC cut its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 0.8% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 8,722 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 68 shares during the period. Advocate Group LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $4,901,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 77,544,675 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $42,503,787,000 after buying an additional 365,537 shares in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in Mastercard during the second quarter worth $11,421,213,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 4.7% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,096,979 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $11,015,557,000 after buying an additional 907,184 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 38.6% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 13,526,118 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $7,413,936,000 after buying an additional 3,765,378 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Mastercard during the first quarter worth $4,238,764,000. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Mastercard from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Royal Bank Of Canada increased their price target on shares of Mastercard from $650.00 to $656.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $650.00 price target on the stock. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $645.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Finally, Wolfe Research set a $655.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Monday, June 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Mastercard currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $634.04.

Mastercard Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MA opened at $556.80 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $581.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $562.86. The stock has a market capitalization of $503.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.41. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52 week low of $465.59 and a 52 week high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The credit services provider reported $4.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.05 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $8.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.95 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 44.93% and a return on equity of 200.01%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.50 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 9th will be given a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is 20.50%.

Insider Activity at Mastercard

In other news, CFO J. Mehra Sachin sold 17,263 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.00, for a total value of $10,202,433.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 31,234 shares in the company, valued at $18,459,294. This represents a 35.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.09% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Mastercard 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.