Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) Receives Average Recommendation of “Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) have received an average rating of “Buy” from the twenty-four brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and six have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $669.1818.

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial set a $609.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $665.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $739.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, January 29th.

Mastercard Stock Down 0.5%

MA opened at $549.07 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $555.27 and a 200-day moving average of $564.33. The company has a market capitalization of $493.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.24, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.83. Mastercard has a fifty-two week low of $465.59 and a fifty-two week high of $601.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.52. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.65% and a return on equity of 203.92%. The business had revenue of $8.81 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.80 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.82 earnings per share. Mastercard’s revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Mastercard will post 15.91 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 9th. This is a positive change from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.07%.

Institutional Trading of Mastercard

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. LGT Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Mastercard in the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Mastercard by 820.0% during the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 46 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Mastercard in the second quarter valued at about $29,000. IMG Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in Mastercard in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, Robbins Farley grew its position in Mastercard by 50.0% in the third quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 54 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

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.