Mastercard Incorporated $MA Position Lowered by Sterling Capital Management LLC

Sterling Capital Management LLC lessened its position in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 4.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 25,153 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,258 shares during the period. Sterling Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $13,871,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Fundsmith LLP acquired a new position in Mastercard during the second quarter valued at approximately $639,458,000. Corient Private Wealth LP increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 147.2% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LP now owns 1,682,183 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $863,969,000 after purchasing an additional 1,001,671 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 295.8% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 860,011 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $441,702,000 after purchasing an additional 642,724 shares during the last quarter. SEB Asset Management AB bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the 1st quarter worth $293,574,000. Finally, Soroban Capital Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Mastercard by 30.5% during the 1st quarter. Soroban Capital Partners LP now owns 2,464,499 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,231,412,000 after buying an additional 575,412 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MA has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $632.00 price objective (up from $609.00) on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Friday, July 31st. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Mastercard from $670.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Clear Str raised shares of Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $700.00 to $735.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group upped their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $580.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Mastercard has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $683.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Mastercard news, CFO Ling Hai sold 4,317 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $620.00, for a total value of $2,676,540.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 35,750 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,165,000. This represents a 10.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Julius Genachowski sold 371 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $585.01, for a total transaction of $217,038.71. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 8,607 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,035,181.07. The trade was a 4.13% 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 72,676 shares of company stock valued at $41,966,586 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard is expanding its growth opportunity in business-to-business payments through an “agentic AI” strategy targeting the roughly $80 trillion B2B market. The initiative could support long-term transaction volume and value-added-services growth. Inside Mastercard’s Agentic AI Strategy For The $80 Trillion B2B Payments Market
• Positive Sentiment: UBS said payment tokenization could contribute a low-single-digit percentage to Mastercard’s medium-term revenue growth, while producing a low-to-mid-single-digit contribution to value-added-services growth. This reinforces the investment case for Mastercard’s security and digital-payments businesses. Visa and Mastercard tokenization fees could support revenue growth
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard launched a Stablecoin Security API that provides real-time risk scoring for fiat-to-stablecoin transactions. The platform could create additional enterprise revenue while positioning Mastercard as an intermediary in regulated digital-asset payments. Mastercard Introduced A Stablecoin Security API
• Positive Sentiment: New initiatives—including an AI assistant for cardholders, expanded fraud protection through First-Party Trust, and partnerships for contactless transit and premium co-branded cards—could improve customer engagement, fraud-related services, and payment volumes across international markets. Mastercard unveils AI assistant to help cardholders use benefits
• Neutral Sentiment: Mastercard is scheduled to report earnings next week. Analysts expect earnings growth and are highlighting the potential for a beat, but investors may remain cautious until management provides updated guidance on consumer spending, cross-border volumes, and operating expenses. MasterCard Reports Next Week: Wall Street Expects Earnings Growth
• Negative Sentiment: Payment-network stocks, including Mastercard, Visa, and American Express, have been slipping as investors reacted skeptically to American Express’s quarterly results despite a profit outlook improvement. The sector-wide move appears to be weighing on Mastercard independently of its company-specific announcements. American Express Falls Despite Q3 Beat; Visa and Mastercard Slip

Mastercard Price Performance

MA stock traded down $10.34 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $622.87. 2,697,264 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,076,390. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52 week low of $464.52 and a 52 week high of $633.29. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $581.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $539.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $545.64 billion, a PE ratio of 34.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.76.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The credit services provider reported $5.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.77 by $0.27. Mastercard had a return on equity of 239.99% and a net margin of 46.34%. The firm had revenue of $9.28 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.08 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $4.15 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.91 EPS 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 paid a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 9th. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.14%.

Mastercard 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 electronic payments and provides technology that supports transactions conducted through credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payment products.

In addition to operating its payments network, Mastercard offers services in areas such as payment security, fraud prevention, authentication, cybersecurity, data and analytics, loyalty programs, digital identity and open banking.