Paladin Advisory Group LLC Reduces Stock Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Paladin Advisory Group LLC lessened its holdings in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 36.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,708 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 971 shares during the quarter. Paladin Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $972,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.2% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,475,807 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $44,098,695,000 after purchasing an additional 931,132 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Mastercard by 2.8% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 55,868.1% in the 2nd quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,421,148 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $7,541,880,000 after buying an additional 13,397,168 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Mastercard during the 2nd quarter worth $6,725,317,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 25.6% during 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.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $660.00 to $668.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Truist Financial set a $609.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Macquarie Infrastructure lifted their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $660.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $665.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group set a $610.00 price target on Mastercard and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $669.18.

Mastercard Price Performance

Shares of MA opened at $549.07 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $493.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.83. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $465.59 and a twelve month high of $601.77. 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 company has a 50 day moving average of $555.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $564.28.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.52. The business had revenue of $8.81 billion for 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 quarterly revenue was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.82 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. This is a boost from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is 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.