Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Grows Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. raised its holdings in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 52,985 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,031 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $30,138,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MA. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Mastercard by 55,868.1% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,421,148 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $7,541,880,000 after purchasing an additional 13,397,168 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Mastercard in the 2nd quarter worth about $6,725,317,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Mastercard by 25.6% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,372,404 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,580,909,000 after buying an additional 1,299,977 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Mastercard by 1.2% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,475,807 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $44,098,695,000 after buying an additional 931,132 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 2.8% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,760,552 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $11,062,509,000 after buying an additional 542,841 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on MA shares. Compass Point raised shares of Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $620.00 to $735.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Mastercard from $690.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Evercore set a $610.00 target price on Mastercard in a research note on Friday, December 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $669.18.

Mastercard Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NYSE:MA opened at $549.07 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $493.06 billion, a PE ratio of 33.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.83. 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 Incorporated has a 52-week low of $465.59 and a 52-week high of $601.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $555.27 and a 200 day moving average of $564.33.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.52. Mastercard had a return on equity of 203.92% and a net margin of 45.65%.The firm had revenue of $8.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.80 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.82 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

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

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.