S Harris Financial Group LLC Invests $814,000 in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

S Harris Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 1,426 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $814,000. Mastercard comprises about 0.8% of S Harris Financial Group LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Mastercard by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,897,854 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $45,612,087,000 after buying an additional 466,514 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its position in Mastercard by 53,535.0% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 72,597,097 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $41,444,231,000 after buying an additional 72,461,743 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Mastercard by 2.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,580,374 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $20,807,283,000 after buying an additional 997,536 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,686,605 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $11,773,153,000 after acquiring an additional 349,369 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 17,964,658 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $10,256,368,000 after acquiring an additional 759,584 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MA. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Susquehanna reduced their price target on Mastercard from $670.00 to $665.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 1st. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Mastercard in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $605.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $656.04.

Mastercard Stock Performance

NYSE:MA opened at $490.73 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $498.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $521.76. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $464.52 and a twelve month high of $601.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $433.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.40, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.74.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.41 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.26 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 212.96% and a net margin of 45.88%.Mastercard’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.73 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.87 per share. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.14%.

Mastercard 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.