Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC Has $6.87 Million Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 40.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 12,027 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 3,491 shares during the quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $6,866,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in MA. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Mastercard by 2.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,580,374 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $20,807,283,000 after purchasing an additional 997,536 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Mastercard by 1.2% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,431,340 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $45,181,341,000 after purchasing an additional 955,533 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of Mastercard by 792.2% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 865,523 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $494,110,000 after purchasing an additional 768,514 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in Mastercard by 6.5% in the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 10,347,834 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $5,885,944,000 after acquiring an additional 629,941 shares during the period. Finally, Danske Bank A S acquired a new position in Mastercard in the third quarter valued at about $245,980,000. 97.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Mastercard Stock Up 1.5%

MA stock opened at $501.07 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $446.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.33, a P/E/G ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a 50-day moving average of $515.79 and a 200-day moving average of $543.70. Mastercard Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $465.59 and a fifty-two week high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.52. The company had revenue of $8.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.80 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 203.92% and a net margin of 45.65%.Mastercard’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 firm earned $3.82 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be given a dividend of $0.87 per share. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.07%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on MA shares. Bank of America started coverage on Mastercard in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $700.00 target price for the company. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $685.00 target price on Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $739.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Compass Point raised Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $620.00 to $735.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $664.40.

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.