Apollon Wealth Management LLC Increases Stake in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Apollon Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 18.9% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 62,078 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,855 shares during the period. Apollon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $31,018,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 53,535.0% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 72,597,097 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $41,444,231,000 after buying an additional 72,461,743 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Mastercard in the 4th quarter valued at about $6,705,708,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. raised 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 valued at $2,324,743,000 after acquiring an additional 3,648,748 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake 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 worth $20,807,283,000 after purchasing an additional 997,536 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp acquired a new position in shares of Mastercard during the 4th quarter worth approximately $497,311,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Mastercard

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard continues to attract investor interest as a trending stock, which can support shares by keeping attention on the company’s earnings and growth outlook. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard highlighted new travel-focused offerings, including its “Priceless Africa” experience, reinforcing its strategy to deepen consumer engagement and build higher-value travel spending across its network. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard and MarginEdge launched a commercial charge card for restaurants, a small but potentially useful expansion of Mastercard’s commercial payments footprint. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary continues to frame Mastercard as a premium payments company tied to international expansion, but some articles also argue the stock remains expensive and has lagged over longer periods, which could temper enthusiasm. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Additional pieces focused on broad “what to know” coverage and consumer trends, but did not report a major new catalyst that would materially change Mastercard’s near-term fundamentals. Article Title

Mastercard Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of NYSE MA opened at $499.71 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $441.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.92, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $496.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $519.71. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1 year low of $464.52 and a 1 year high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.41 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.26 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 212.96% and a net margin of 45.88%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.73 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore restated a “negative” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Loop Capital reissued a “buy” rating and set a $631.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Wall Street Zen cut Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Tigress Financial lifted their price target on Mastercard from $730.00 to $735.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given 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 an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $656.08.

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.