Mastercard Incorporated $MA Shares Acquired by S&CO Inc.

S&CO Inc. boosted its position in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 24.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,571 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,255 shares during the period. S&CO Inc.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $9,425,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in MA. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 55,868.1% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,421,148 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $7,541,880,000 after purchasing an additional 13,397,168 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Mastercard in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $6,725,317,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its position in Mastercard by 25.6% in 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 during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.2% in 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 acquiring an additional 931,132 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,760,552 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $11,062,509,000 after purchasing an additional 542,841 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Trading Down 2.4%

Shares of MA opened at $535.49 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $480.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.41, a P/E/G 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. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $555.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $564.13. Mastercard Incorporated has a one year low of $465.59 and a one year high of $601.77.

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

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 9th. Investors of record on Friday, January 9th were paid a dividend of $0.87 per share. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. This is a boost from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.07%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MA has been the topic of several research analyst reports. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $668.00 to $671.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. HSBC raised Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Citigroup raised Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 31st. Finally, Truist Financial set a $609.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mastercard currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $669.18.

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.