Chicago Capital LLC Cuts Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Chicago Capital LLC reduced its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 0.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 151,050 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,067 shares during the period. Mastercard makes up approximately 2.1% of Chicago Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Chicago Capital LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $85,919,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.2% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC purchased a new stake in Mastercard during the second quarter valued at approximately $11,421,213,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in 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 valued at $11,062,509,000 after acquiring an additional 542,841 shares in the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in 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 worth $7,541,880,000 after purchasing an additional 13,397,168 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Mastercard during the second quarter worth $6,725,317,000. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Stock Performance

MA opened at $568.85 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12-month low of $465.59 and a 12-month high of $601.77. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $555.64 and a two-hundred day moving average of $565.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $510.83 billion, a PE ratio of 36.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.86.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $8.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.89 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on MA. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Mastercard from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Mastercard from $669.00 to $660.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 31st. Macquarie raised their price target on Mastercard from $655.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $665.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $657.48.

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.