Belleair Asset Management LLC Acquires New Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Belleair Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,586 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $905,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MA. Vulcan Value Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vulcan Value Partners LLC now owns 466,222 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $265,233,000 after acquiring an additional 28,331 shares in the last quarter. Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 153.6% during the 3rd quarter. Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 2,856 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,625,000 after acquiring an additional 1,730 shares in the last quarter. Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Mastercard during the 4th quarter valued at $1,113,000. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 309,192 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $175,872,000 after acquiring an additional 4,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 229,299 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $130,902,000 after acquiring an additional 9,795 shares in the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MA has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Loop Capital initiated coverage on shares of Mastercard in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $631.00 price target on the stock. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 price target on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 19th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Mastercard in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Mastercard from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $685.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. 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. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $659.00.

Mastercard News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q1 beat on EPS and revenue with strong cross‑border volume and value‑added services, showing durable revenue growth and high margins; conference call/press materials are available for details. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Company is pushing into “agentic commerce” and AI‑driven payments (Agent Pay, Insight Tokens), positioning Mastercard to capture payments from autonomous software and new commerce flows. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: New partnerships broaden product ecosystem — Wizard integrates Mastercard Agent Pay via Stripe, and Mastercard is expanding AI agent and crypto payment rails (extensions with OpenClaw/Lobster.cash, KuCoin tie‑ups), which could open new revenue streams. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Analyst support and buybacks: BMO initiated with an Outperform and $605 target; Mastercard remains a large share‑buyback name — both are supportive for long‑term EPS per share. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Small upward revisions to FY estimates from analysts (Erste) reinforce consensus that earnings should keep growing into FY2027. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Deeper metric analysis and analyst commentary compare the quarter to Street expectations and last year — useful for modeling but not headline‑moving by itself. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Context from peers (Visa) shows payments volumes and cross‑border trends are industry‑wide drivers; keep an eye on sector data and macro (travel/inflation) that influence volumes. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Despite the beat, the stock is down today — headlines and some analysts point to near‑term worries (travel headwinds, rising costs, and profit‑taking after a strong run) that can pressure the share price even with solid fundamentals. Read More.

Mastercard Trading Down 4.0%

Shares of NYSE:MA opened at $504.06 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $449.53 billion, a PE ratio of 30.51, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.83. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1 year low of $480.50 and a 1 year high of $601.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $506.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $536.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.26 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.65% and a return on equity of 203.92%. Mastercard’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.73 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

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

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.