Mastercard Incorporated $MA Shares Acquired by GCQ FUNDS MANAGEMENT PTY Ltd

GCQ FUNDS MANAGEMENT PTY Ltd increased its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 27.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 79,030 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 17,116 shares during the quarter. Mastercard comprises approximately 6.8% of GCQ FUNDS MANAGEMENT PTY Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. GCQ FUNDS MANAGEMENT PTY Ltd’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $44,953,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 42.3% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,824 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,594,000 after acquiring an additional 2,028 shares during the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. boosted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 8.5% during the second quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 2,548 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,432,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 16.0% during the second quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 2,237 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,258,000 after purchasing an additional 308 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mastercard in the second quarter valued at approximately $242,000. Finally, Austin Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in Mastercard by 33.4% in the 2nd quarter. Austin Private Wealth LLC now owns 1,409 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $792,000 after buying an additional 353 shares during the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Key Stories Impacting Mastercard

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard expanded its reach in Africa by partnering with a Tanzanian firm to accelerate digital-payments adoption, supporting regional volume growth and network expansion. Mastercard, Tananian firm partner to fast-track the transformation of digital payment
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard is moving into transit payments (users can pay bus fares), a practical payments use case that can increase transactions and deepen merchant/consumer engagement. Mastercard users can pay bus fares
• Positive Sentiment: Reports note Mastercard is hiring for crypto/stablecoin and DeFi roles (e.g., Director of Crypto Flows), signaling continued investment in digital-asset rails that could open new fee pools and product offerings. Mastercard Is Staffing Up for Stablecoins and DeFi — Here’s What That Means
• Neutral Sentiment: Mastercard is selling its loyalty business, SessionM, to Capillary Technologies for $20 million — a small divestiture that trims non-core assets but is unlikely to move material revenue metrics. Capillary Technologies acquires SessionM from Mastercard for $20 million
• Neutral Sentiment: Zacks highlights that Mastercard is a heavily searched stock — increased attention can boost liquidity and short-term volatility but does not itself change fundamentals. Investors Heavily Search Mastercard Incorporated (MA): Here is What You Need to Know
• Negative Sentiment: Research firm Citrini warns that “agentic commerce” and AI-driven commerce models could disrupt card networks over time — a thematic risk that, if realized, would pressure long-term transaction volumes and margins. Visa, Mastercard, AmEx could be gutted by AI ‘agentic commerce’ threat, Citrini Research warns — but retail traders unfazed by selloff
• Negative Sentiment: European payment apps are pushing into retail payments to challenge Visa/Mastercard dominance in local markets — increased competition could pressure fee growth in certain regions. European payment app targets Visa, Mastercard dominance with retail payments push

Mastercard Stock Up 2.4%

Shares of NYSE MA opened at $509.86 on Thursday. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12-month low of $465.59 and a 12-month high of $601.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. The firm has a market cap of $454.70 billion, a PE ratio of 30.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $547.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $560.28.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.52. The firm had revenue of $8.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.80 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.65% and a return on equity of 203.92%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.82 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 8th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.07%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MA has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Mastercard from $685.00 to $655.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 30th. HSBC upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 8th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $668.00 to $671.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 31st. Finally, Truist Financial set a $611.00 price target on Mastercard in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $669.27.

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.