Mastercard Incorporated $MA Shares Bought by Merit Financial Group LLC

Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 32,344 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,224 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $18,398,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MA. ORG Partners LLC raised its position in Mastercard by 73.2% in the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 698 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $394,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares during the period. Curio Wealth LLC lifted its stake in Mastercard by 22,400.0% during the 2nd quarter. Curio Wealth LLC now owns 225 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $126,000 after acquiring an additional 224 shares in the last quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Mastercard by 3,694.7% during the 3rd quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 9,297 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,288,000 after acquiring an additional 9,052 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,475,807 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $44,098,695,000 after acquiring an additional 931,132 shares during the period. Finally, Wheelhouse Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in Mastercard by 4.4% during the second quarter. Wheelhouse Advisory Group LLC now owns 1,336 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $751,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have commented on MA. Truist Financial decreased their price target on shares of Mastercard from $638.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Evercore ISI set a $610.00 price target on Mastercard in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on Mastercard from $685.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Morgan Stanley set a $665.00 price objective on Mastercard and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $657.48.

Mastercard Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of Mastercard stock opened at $577.33 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The company has a market capitalization of $518.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.91, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.87. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1 year low of $465.59 and a 1 year high of $601.77. The company’s fifty day moving average is $555.95 and its two-hundred day moving average is $565.53.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.31 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $8.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.53 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.28% and a return on equity of 202.03%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.89 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 9th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 9th will be issued a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 9th. This is an increase from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.25%.

Mastercard Company 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.