NFSG Corp Decreases Stake in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

NFSG Corp cut its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 93.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 253 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 3,545 shares during the quarter. NFSG Corp’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $127,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in MA. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 42.3% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. raised its holdings in Mastercard by 8.5% during the second quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 2,548 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,432,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Betterment LLC raised its holdings in Mastercard by 6.5% during the second quarter. Betterment LLC now owns 947 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $532,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Mastercard by 35.8% during the second quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 677,204 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $380,548,000 after purchasing an additional 178,387 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Darwin Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Mastercard during the second quarter worth $431,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on MA. Piper Sandler started coverage on Mastercard in a report on Monday, June 29th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $597.00 target price on the stock. Loop Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $631.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $679.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Friday, May 1st. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, March 19th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Mastercard from $660.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Mastercard presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $653.92.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Mastercard stock opened at $551.15 on Friday. Mastercard Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $464.52 and a fifty-two week high of $601.77. The company has a market capitalization of $486.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.90, a PEG ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.73. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $503.03 and a two-hundred day moving average of $516.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.41 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.26 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.88% and a return on equity of 212.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.73 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be issued a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mastercard

In related news, insider Raj Seshadri sold 1,977 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.73, for a total value of $1,047,276.21. Following the transaction, the insider owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,702,934.17. This trade represents a 10.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 200 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $540.00, for a total value of $108,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 3,322 shares in the company, valued at $1,793,880. The trade was a 5.68% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 7,005 shares of company stock valued at $3,689,976 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

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.