Mastercard (NYSE:MA) Upgraded at Clear Str

Clear Str upgraded shares of Mastercard (NYSE:MA) to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms also recently commented on MA. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Mastercard from $660.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $671.00 to $664.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $679.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Mastercard presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $653.92.

Mastercard Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MA opened at $543.55 on Thursday. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $503.99 and a 200-day moving average of $516.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $480.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.46, a PEG ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.73. Mastercard has a fifty-two week low of $464.52 and a fifty-two week high of $601.77.

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 the consensus estimate of $4.41 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.26 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 212.96% and a net margin of 45.88%.Mastercard’s revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.73 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Mastercard will post 19.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Mastercard news, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 3,322 shares in the company, valued at $1,793,880. The trade was a 5.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Raj Seshadri sold 4,828 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $525.00, for a total transaction of $2,534,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at $8,625,225. The trade was a 22.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 7,005 shares of company stock valued at $3,689,976. Company insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mastercard

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Mastercard by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,897,854 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $45,612,087,000 after purchasing an additional 466,514 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP grew its holdings in Mastercard by 53,535.0% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Mastercard by 2.8% during 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 buying an additional 997,536 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,686,605 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $11,773,153,000 after buying an additional 349,369 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 17,964,658 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $10,256,368,000 after buying an additional 759,584 shares in the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.