Mastercard Incorporated $MA Shares Sold by CENTRAL TRUST Co

CENTRAL TRUST Co lowered its position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 3.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,646 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,159 shares during the quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $18,003,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.3% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,964,305 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $18,984,867,000 after purchasing an additional 486,283 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 10.4% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,123,041 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,559,779,000 after purchasing an additional 480,725 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,225,359 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,111,216,000 after purchasing an additional 42,871 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 5.8% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 3,626,416 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,862,527,000 after purchasing an additional 199,424 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 17.8% during the 1st 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of Mastercard stock opened at $660.63 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $597.33 and a 200-day moving average of $541.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.29, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 1.01. The company has a market capitalization of $575.52 billion, a PE ratio of 34.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.78. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1-year low of $464.52 and a 1-year high of $681.99.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The credit services provider reported $5.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.17 by $0.14. Mastercard had a return on equity of 260.86% and a net margin of 46.73%. The business had revenue of $9.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.66 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $4.38 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 20.00 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 9th were paid a dividend of $0.87 per share. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.20%.

Recent Mastercard Headlines

Investors following MA have been watching these headlines:

• Positive Sentiment: Sanford C. Bernstein raised its price target to $764 from $730 and reiterated an “outperform” rating, signaling confidence in Mastercard’s prospects. Read more about Bernstein’s price target
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard is partnering with Sage and Adyen on small-business financial services. Mastercard will provide the card network for Sage business debit cards, while Adyen supplies banking infrastructure for the initial French rollout. Read about the Sage, Adyen and Mastercard partnership
• Positive Sentiment: Other partnerships broaden Mastercard’s business-banking reach, including a BMO commercial card in Canada and Citizens’ treasury-management collaboration using Mastercard technology. Read about Mastercard’s business-banking partnerships

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Freedom Broker downgraded shares of Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $620.00 to $725.00 in a research report on Thursday, November 5th. Loop Capital lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $631.00 to $647.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Piper Sandler boosted their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $597.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Rothschild & Co Redburn decreased their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $710.00 to $688.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, September 2nd. Finally, Clear Str raised shares of Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mastercard has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $713.21.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mastercard

In other Mastercard news, CFO Ling Hai sold 4,317 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $641.00, for a total transaction of $2,767,197.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 35,750 shares in the company, valued at $22,915,750. The trade was a 10.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Sachin Mehra sold 3,266 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $584.00, for a total value of $1,907,344.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 36,650 shares in the company, valued at $21,403,600. This represents a 8.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 sold a total of 25,403 shares of company stock worth $15,428,736 in the last 90 days. 0.09% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Mastercard Profile

Mastercard Incorporated is a global payments technology company that operates a network connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions, businesses and governments. Its network supports electronic payments, including transactions made with Mastercard-branded credit, debit and prepaid cards, as well as digital payment methods. The company provides technology for authorizing, clearing and settling transactions. It also offers services related to cybersecurity, identity verification, data analytics, fraud prevention and payment consulting.