Mastercard Incorporated $MA Stock Holdings Lowered by WestEnd Advisors LLC

WestEnd Advisors LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 1.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 76,967 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,151 shares during the period. Mastercard comprises approximately 1.0% of WestEnd Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. WestEnd Advisors LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $43,782,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the 2nd quarter worth $11,421,213,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted 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 valued at $7,541,880,000 after purchasing an additional 13,397,168 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the second quarter valued at $6,725,317,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,299,977 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Mastercard by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,475,807 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $44,098,695,000 after purchasing an additional 931,132 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on MA shares. Tigress Financial upped their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $685.00 to $730.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Macquarie boosted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $655.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $645.00 to $654.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $713.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $665.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $657.48.

Mastercard Stock Down 1.4%

MA stock opened at $562.93 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $555.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $565.73. The company has a market cap of $505.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.99, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.86. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12-month low of $465.59 and a 12-month high of $601.77. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.31 by $0.07. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.28% and a return on equity of 202.03%. The business had revenue of $8.60 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.53 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.89 earnings per share. Mastercard’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 9th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.87 per share. This is a boost from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 9th. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.44%.

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.