X Square Capital LLC Invests $819,000 in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

X Square Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,594 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $819,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd lifted its stake in Mastercard by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd now owns 139,844 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $70,089,000 after acquiring an additional 9,504 shares in the last quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan raised its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan now owns 65,414 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $37,344,000 after purchasing an additional 3,768 shares during the last quarter. Marble Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Mastercard in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,328,000. Charles Lim Capital Ltd bought a new position in shares of Mastercard during the fourth quarter valued at about $15,699,000. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 5.4% during the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 28,205 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $14,093,000 after purchasing an additional 1,434 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have commented on MA shares. Loop Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $631.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Truist Financial boosted their target price on Mastercard from $554.00 to $633.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on Mastercard from $629.00 to $642.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on Mastercard from $665.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Mastercard from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $664.71.

Mastercard Stock Down 0.2%

MA opened at $598.69 on Wednesday. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $464.52 and a twelve month high of $601.62. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $542.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $518.46. The stock has a market cap of $524.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.93, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The credit services provider reported $5.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.77 by $0.27. Mastercard had a net margin of 46.34% and a return on equity of 239.99%. The company had revenue of $9.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.15 EPS. Mastercard’s revenue was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th were paid a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Raj Seshadri sold 1,977 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.73, for a total transaction of $1,047,276.21. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,702,934.17. This represents a 10.74% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Linda Pistecchia Kirkpatrick sold 4,280 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.31, for a total transaction of $2,440,926.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 31,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,781,695.49. This represents a 12.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 71,357 shares of company stock worth $40,637,262 in the last quarter. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.