ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC Has $3.94 Million Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 438.6% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,879 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,416 shares during the period. ARQ Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $3,937,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in MA. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its holdings in 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 valued at $41,444,231,000 after acquiring an additional 72,461,743 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Mastercard during the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,705,708,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 3,648,748 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 997,536 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard in the 4th quarter valued at $497,311,000. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on MA shares. BNP Paribas Exane raised Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Mastercard from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Mastercard to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 27th. Loop Capital restated a “buy” rating and set a $631.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Truist Financial lowered their target price on shares of Mastercard from $590.00 to $561.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $653.78.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MA traded up $2.94 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $526.14. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,616,894 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,819,577. The firm has a market capitalization of $464.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $499.66 and a 200 day moving average price of $517.53. Mastercard Incorporated has a one year low of $464.52 and a one 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, topping the consensus estimate of $4.41 by $0.19. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.88% and a return on equity of 212.96%. The company had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.26 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.73 EPS. Mastercard’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

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

Trending Headlines about Mastercard

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Barclays upgraded Mastercard to strong-buy, adding to the bullish analyst backdrop and reinforcing confidence in the company’s long-term growth outlook.
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard launched Agent Pay for Machines (AP4M), a platform designed to enable secure AI-agent and machine-to-machine payments, which could open a new growth avenue in emerging digital commerce. Mastercard (MA) Launches AP4M To Bring AI Agent Payments Onchain
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard and VEON announced a partnership to expand financial services across several markets, highlighting continued international expansion and transaction-network growth potential. VEON (VEON), Mastercard (MA) Partner to Expand Financial Services
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts still expect strong fundamentals, and recent commentary emphasized Mastercard’s resilient operations and earnings-growth forecasts, which helped support the stock despite technical weakness.
• Neutral Sentiment: Mastercard will report second-quarter 2026 results on July 30, keeping investors focused on payment-volume trends, margins, and whether growth can justify the valuation. Mastercard Incorporated to Host Conference Call on Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results
• Neutral Sentiment: An insider sale of 200 shares was disclosed, but it was a small pre-planned transaction under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, so it is not a major signal by itself.
• Negative Sentiment: Mastercard’s move below its 200-day moving average may be weighing on sentiment, as traders often view that level as a key technical support point.
• Negative Sentiment: Broader concerns around stablecoin competition, regulatory fee pressure, and alternative payment rails could pressure legacy card-network stocks like Mastercard and Visa.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $540.00, for a total value of $108,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 3,322 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,793,880. This trade represents a 5.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Raj Seshadri sold 4,828 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $525.00, for a total transaction of $2,534,700.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at $8,625,225. This trade represents a 22.71% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 7,005 shares of company stock valued at $3,689,976 over the last 90 days. 0.09% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.