ABN AMRO Bank N.V. Buys 9,347 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated $MA

ABN AMRO Bank N.V. grew its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 18.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 59,946 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,347 shares during the quarter. ABN AMRO Bank N.V.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $33,994,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MA. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 931,132 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 542,841 shares during the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the second quarter worth about $6,725,317,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 25.6% in the second 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 period. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MA has been the topic of several recent research reports. Redburn Partners set a $685.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Compass Point upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $620.00 to $735.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $685.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Hsbc Global Res raised Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $669.18.

Mastercard Price Performance

MA stock opened at $552.82 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. The firm has a market cap of $496.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.46, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $555.18 and its 200 day simple moving average is $564.40. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12-month low of $465.59 and a 12-month high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.52. The firm had revenue of $8.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.80 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 203.92% and a net margin of 45.65%.The business’s revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.82 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 9th will be issued a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 9th. This is an increase from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.07%.

Mastercard 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.