Clear Str Upgrades Mastercard (NYSE:MA) to “Strong-Buy”

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) was upgraded by stock analysts at Clear Str to a “strong-buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on MA. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $679.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Barclays assumed coverage on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $640.00 price target for the company. Loop Capital reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $631.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Truist Financial dropped their target price on Mastercard from $590.00 to $561.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $653.92.

Mastercard Trading Down 1.4%

NYSE:MA opened at $543.55 on Thursday. Mastercard has a 1 year low of $464.52 and a 1 year high of $601.77. The stock has a market cap of $480.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.46, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.73. The business has a fifty day moving average of $503.99 and a 200-day moving average of $516.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.41 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.26 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 212.96% and a net margin of 45.88%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.73 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Mastercard will post 19.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Mastercard

In related news, insider Raj Seshadri sold 1,977 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.73, for a total value of $1,047,276.21. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at $8,702,934.17. The trade was a 10.74% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $540.00, for a total transaction of $108,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 3,322 shares in the company, valued at $1,793,880. The trade was a 5.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 7,005 shares of company stock valued at $3,689,976 over the last three months. 0.09% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MA. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 20.0% in the second quarter. Riggs Asset Managment Co. Inc. now owns 108 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Mastercard by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC now owns 1,597 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $908,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. Silicon Valley Capital Partners raised its holdings in Mastercard by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Silicon Valley Capital Partners now owns 1,717 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $977,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. Affinity Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Mastercard by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Affinity Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,939 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,678,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the period. Finally, Abacus Planning Group Inc. grew its holdings in Mastercard by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc. now owns 590 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $337,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.