Mastercard Incorporated $MA Holdings Lowered by AMI Asset Management Corp

AMI Asset Management Corp cut its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 75,324 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,265 shares during the period. Mastercard makes up approximately 2.4% of AMI Asset Management Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th biggest position. AMI Asset Management Corp’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $42,845,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in Mastercard by 42.3% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,824 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,594,000 after buying an additional 2,028 shares in the last quarter. Redwood Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Mastercard by 43.0% in the 1st quarter. Redwood Investment Management LLC now owns 1,705 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $934,000 after acquiring an additional 513 shares during the last quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Mastercard by 89.2% during the 1st quarter. Truvestments Capital LLC now owns 123 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Okabena Investment Services Inc. grew its stake in shares of Mastercard by 100.4% in the 1st quarter. Okabena Investment Services Inc. now owns 8,768 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $4,806,000 after purchasing an additional 4,393 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management grew its stake in shares of Mastercard by 8.1% in the 1st quarter. Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment Management now owns 1,032 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $566,000 after purchasing an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on MA. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $665.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Tigress Financial raised their price objective on Mastercard from $685.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on Mastercard from $645.00 to $654.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley set a $665.00 price target on Mastercard and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Macquarie lifted their price target on Mastercard from $655.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $657.48.

Mastercard Trading Up 0.5%

NYSE:MA opened at $579.38 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $520.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $555.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $565.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52 week low of $465.59 and a 52 week high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.38 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.31 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.53 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.28% and a return on equity of 202.03%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.89 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 9th will be given a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 9th. This is a positive change from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 19.44%.

About Mastercard

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.