Clear Retirement Advice LLC Acquires New Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Clear Retirement Advice LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 1,029 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $570,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MA. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 53,535.0% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 72,597,097 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $41,444,231,000 after buying an additional 72,461,743 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Mastercard in the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,705,708,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its holdings in Mastercard by 861.6% in the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 4,072,210 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $2,324,743,000 after buying an additional 3,648,748 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Mastercard by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,580,374 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $20,807,283,000 after acquiring an additional 997,536 shares during the period. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp acquired a new stake in Mastercard in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $497,311,000. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on MA. Citigroup cut their target price on Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Weiss Ratings cut Mastercard from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Evercore reissued a “negative” rating on shares of Mastercard in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Truist Financial cut their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $590.00 to $561.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $656.00 to $629.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $656.04.

Key Mastercard News

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard is pushing deeper into AI-driven “agentic commerce” with its new Agent Pay and related partnerships, which could help it capture more of the next wave of digital payments as AI agents begin shopping and paying on behalf of consumers. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard expanded its cross-border payments footprint through partnerships involving PaidBy and the Appia Foundation, reinforcing its international network and transaction growth opportunities. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Zacks highlighted Mastercard’s network-focused model, faster growth profile, and estimated upside versus American Express, suggesting the stock may still have room to rerate as digital payments expand. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard announced a quarterly dividend, which can appeal to income-focused investors and signals continued cash generation and shareholder returns.
• Neutral Sentiment: Mastercard executives said consumers are still navigating the current economy reasonably well, which supports the view that spending trends remain stable but does not directly change the company’s outlook. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Commentary on Mastercard’s former CMO and broader AI-driven marketing trends is more about the company’s thought leadership than a direct financial catalyst. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage comparing Mastercard with Remitly Global and a note about Mastercard being a top-ranked momentum stock are generally supportive, but they are more market commentary than new fundamentals. Article Title Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: News that Russia is working on a plan to remove Visa and Mastercard highlights geopolitical and regulatory risk that could weigh on long-term international payment volumes. Article Title

Mastercard Trading Down 0.5%

Shares of Mastercard stock opened at $490.73 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $499.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $521.98. Mastercard Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $464.52 and a fifty-two week high of $601.77. The firm has a market cap of $433.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.41 by $0.19. Mastercard had a return on equity of 212.96% and a net margin of 45.88%.The firm had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.73 earnings per share. Mastercard’s revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be paid a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Mastercard’s payout ratio is currently 20.14%.

Mastercard Company 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.