Wesbanco Bank Inc. Trims Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Wesbanco Bank Inc. lowered its position in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 3.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 63,441 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 2,115 shares during the quarter. Mastercard makes up approximately 1.0% of Wesbanco Bank Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. Wesbanco Bank Inc.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $36,086,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of MA. Nvest Financial LLC lifted its position in Mastercard by 1.2% during the second quarter. Nvest Financial LLC now owns 1,505 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $846,000 after buying an additional 18 shares during the period. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 5.6% during the 2nd quarter. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. now owns 339 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $191,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the period. Rialto Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Mastercard by 13.0% in the second quarter. Rialto Wealth Management LLC now owns 156 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $88,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. boosted its position in shares of Mastercard by 20.0% in the second quarter. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. now owns 108 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC grew its holdings in Mastercard by 2.2% in the third quarter. Brady Martz Wealth Solutions LLC now owns 841 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $479,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares during the period. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on MA. HSBC raised shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Citigroup raised Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Macquarie Infrastructure lifted their target price on Mastercard from $660.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Mastercard from $690.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price objective on Mastercard from $668.00 to $671.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mastercard has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $669.18.

Mastercard Price Performance

MA opened at $535.49 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $555.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $564.13. Mastercard Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $465.59 and a fifty-two week high of $601.77. The firm has a market cap of $480.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.83.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.52. The company had revenue of $8.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.80 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 203.92% and a net margin of 45.65%.The business’s revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.82 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect 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 was paid on Monday, February 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 9th were given a $0.87 dividend. This is a boost from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is 21.07%.

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.