Mastercard Incorporated $MA Shares Sold by Dana Investment Advisors Inc.

Dana Investment Advisors Inc. trimmed its position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 14.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 7,283 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,190 shares during the quarter. Dana Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $4,143,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC increased 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 valued at $7,541,880,000 after acquiring an additional 13,397,168 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Mastercard during the second quarter worth $6,725,317,000. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in 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 worth $3,580,909,000 after purchasing an additional 1,299,977 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Mastercard by 1.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,431,340 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $45,181,341,000 after purchasing an additional 955,533 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 2.8% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,760,552 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $11,062,509,000 after purchasing an additional 542,841 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MA has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Compass Point upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $620.00 to $735.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $656.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a report on Friday, January 30th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on Mastercard from $685.00 to $655.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $739.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $669.27.

Key Stories Impacting Mastercard

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic cybersecurity and SMB push via Cloudflare partnership — Mastercard and Cloudflare announced a strategic tie to build tools for small businesses and strengthen cybersecurity offerings, which could expand Mastercard’s B2B product set and drive new revenue streams. Cloudflare partnership
• Positive Sentiment: Partnership with Ericsson to extend digital money movement — Mastercard and Ericsson will integrate platforms to expand mobile financial services in emerging markets (MEA), supporting volume growth and financial‑inclusion use cases. This can strengthen Mastercard Move and cross‑border flows over time. Ericsson partnership
• Positive Sentiment: Open‑finance traction with banks — Mastercard’s open finance API is being used by Truist for its open banking platform, reducing risky credential‑sharing and positioning Mastercard for recurring API and tokenization revenue. This is a concrete commercial win that supports future growth. Truist open finance
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support — Erste Group forecasts increased earnings for Mastercard, providing analyst backing that may underpin investor confidence. Erste Group forecast
• Neutral Sentiment: Brand & inclusion initiatives — Programs teaching seniors to bank digitally and statements about being ready for India’s agentic commerce requirements are positive for brand and regulatory positioning but unlikely to move near‑term fundamentals materially. Senior digital banking program
• Negative Sentiment: Citrini Research “agentic commerce” scenario raises structural risk to interchange economics — A widely circulated thought experiment models AI agents optimizing transactions to avoid 2–3% interchange fees (via stablecoins/low‑fee rails), prompting a sector selloff and renewed investor scrutiny of card economics. That narrative is driving short‑term downside risk to MA as markets price the potential for lower margins if such rails scale. Citrini Research analysis
• Negative Sentiment: Immediate market reaction — The dystopian AI report triggered broad declines in payments and software stocks, signaling that sentiment risk can amplify price moves even before any regulatory or technical shift occurs. Market reaction

Mastercard Stock Performance

MA opened at $498.14 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. The business’s 50 day moving average is $548.26 and its 200-day moving average is $560.64. The stock has a market cap of $444.24 billion, a PE ratio of 30.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.83. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $465.59 and a twelve month high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.80 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 203.92% and a net margin of 45.65%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.82 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 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 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. Mastercard’s payout ratio is currently 21.07%.

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.