Cottonwood Capital Advisors LLC Sells 1,535 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Cottonwood Capital Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 80.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 369 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,535 shares during the quarter. Cottonwood Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $210,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. LGT Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Mastercard during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Flaharty Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mastercard during the first quarter worth approximately $27,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Mastercard during the second quarter worth approximately $29,000. Finally, IMG Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Mastercard in the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MA has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $685.00 to $730.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, December 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $713.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $610.00 price objective on Mastercard in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $657.48.

Mastercard Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of MA stock opened at $568.85 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The company has a market capitalization of $510.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.37, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.86. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52-week low of $465.59 and a 52-week high of $601.77. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $555.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $565.94.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.31 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.53 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 202.03% and a net margin of 45.28%.The company’s revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.89 EPS. Research analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders 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 represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. This is a boost from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. Mastercard’s payout ratio is 19.44%.

Mastercard Company 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.