Spartan Planning & Wealth Management Makes New $689,000 Investment in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Spartan Planning & Wealth Management purchased a new position in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 1,250 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $689,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,964,305 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $18,984,867,000 after acquiring an additional 486,283 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in shares of Mastercard by 10.4% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,123,041 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,559,779,000 after acquiring an additional 480,725 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Mastercard by 1.0% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,225,359 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $2,111,216,000 after purchasing an additional 42,871 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in Mastercard by 17.8% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,666,018 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,831,763,000 after purchasing an additional 554,366 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi boosted its position in Mastercard by 5.8% in the second quarter. Amundi now owns 3,626,416 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,862,527,000 after purchasing an additional 199,424 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MA has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Clear Str raised Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Mastercard from $664.00 to $667.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Evercore boosted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $550.00 to $620.00 in a report on Friday, July 31st. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of Mastercard from $597.00 to $710.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane increased their price target on shares of Mastercard from $680.00 to $713.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have issued a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mastercard has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $681.56.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Sachin Mehra sold 7,444 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.13, for a total transaction of $4,296,155.72. Following the sale, the insider owned 40,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,613,851.08. This represents a 15.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Linda Kirkpatrick sold 4,280 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $570.31, for a total transaction of $2,440,926.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 31,179 shares in the company, valued at $17,781,695.49. This represents a 12.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 68,359 shares of company stock valued at $39,290,046 over the last ninety days. 0.09% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Mastercard News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts expect Mastercard’s upcoming third-quarter report to show double-digit earnings growth, reinforcing confidence after the company’s latest quarter exceeded both revenue and EPS expectations. Here’s What to Expect From Mastercard Incorporated’s Next Earnings Report
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard is expanding its growth opportunities through a new stablecoin initiative on Solana for cross-border payments and a crypto-backed card program with SoFi Tech Solutions and Mexican fintech Orbi. These efforts could increase transaction volumes and strengthen Mastercard’s role in digital-asset payments. Mastercard launches Open USD stablecoin on Solana
• Positive Sentiment: The company and WEX launched an Asia-Pacific fleet-payments network expected to process billions of dollars in annual transactions as it expands across regional logistics and commercial-vehicle markets. WEX and Mastercard partner to unify fleet payments across Asia-Pacific
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard announced an Africa Cybersecurity Center of Excellence and additional cyber-resilience initiatives, positioning the company to benefit from rising digital-payment adoption and security spending across rapidly digitizing markets. Cyber Resilience Is the Foundation for Africa’s Next Phase of Digital Growth
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard remains above technical buy points alongside Visa, while digital-wallet adoption and new card products such as OneGold’s precious-metals-backed Mastercard could support broader payment volumes. Mastercard and Visa ride win streaks above buy points
• Neutral Sentiment: Director Julius Genachowski sold a combined 741 shares for approximately $435,000 under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. The sales modestly reduce his holdings but may not signal a change in management’s outlook.
• Negative Sentiment: Mastercard and Visa face a reported £700 million UK class-action claim related to post-Brexit fees. Potential legal costs or fee changes could pressure margins, although the ultimate financial impact remains uncertain. Visa and Mastercard face £700m class action

Mastercard Stock Performance

NYSE MA traded up $9.86 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $604.95. 3,710,262 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,513,819. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $529.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.28, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.76. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12-month low of $464.52 and a 12-month high of $605.60. The business has a 50 day moving average of $573.44 and a 200-day moving average of $532.76.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The credit services provider reported $5.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.77 by $0.27. The business had revenue of $9.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.08 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 46.34% and a return on equity of 239.99%. Mastercard’s revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $4.15 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.90 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 9th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be given 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 Friday, October 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.14%.

Mastercard Company Profile

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) is a global payments technology company that operates a network connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses. The company facilitates the authorization, clearing and settlement of electronic payment transactions, while generally not issuing cards or extending credit itself. Its network supports payments made in stores, online and through mobile devices.

Mastercard’s products and services include consumer and commercial payment cards, digital payment solutions, payment processing, fraud prevention, cybersecurity, identity verification, data and analytics, and open banking tools.