Atria Investments Inc Reduces Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Atria Investments Inc reduced its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 2.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 76,118 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 2,010 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $43,297,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of MA. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 72,022 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $40,967,000 after buying an additional 8,210 shares in the last quarter. ICW Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in Mastercard by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. ICW Investment Advisors LLC now owns 10,390 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $5,910,000 after acquiring an additional 281 shares during the period. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co boosted its stake in Mastercard by 21.6% during the third quarter. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 141,308 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $80,377,000 after acquiring an additional 25,100 shares in the last quarter. Elmwood Wealth Management Inc. grew its holdings in Mastercard by 3.0% in the third quarter. Elmwood Wealth Management Inc. now owns 5,725 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,257,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares during the period. Finally, Leuthold Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 3.5% during the third quarter. Leuthold Group LLC now owns 15,630 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $8,890,000 after purchasing an additional 528 shares in the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Compass Point upgraded Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $620.00 to $735.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Daiwa America upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $665.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $739.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 31st. Six 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $669.27.

Mastercard Stock Performance

NYSE MA opened at $537.69 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $465.59 and a twelve month high of $601.77. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $554.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $563.75. The firm has a market cap of $482.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 0.83.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 analysts’ expectations of $8.80 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.82 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be given a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s payout ratio is currently 21.07%.

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.