Mastercard (NYSE:MA) Insider Sells $2,534,700.00 in Stock

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) insider Raj Seshadri sold 4,828 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $525.00, for a total value of $2,534,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,625,225. This represents a 22.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Raj Seshadri also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, July 2nd, Raj Seshadri sold 1,977 shares of Mastercard stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.73, for a total transaction of $1,047,276.21.

Mastercard Trading Up 3.2%

Mastercard stock traded up $16.56 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $539.00. 3,888,904 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,881,398. The stock has a market capitalization of $476.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.19, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.73. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12 month low of $464.52 and a 12 month high of $601.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $496.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $519.05.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted 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. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.88% and a return on equity of 212.96%. The company had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.73 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.6 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of Mastercard

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,897,854 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $45,612,087,000 after acquiring an additional 466,514 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its holdings in Mastercard by 53,535.0% during the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 72,597,097 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $41,444,231,000 after purchasing an additional 72,461,743 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 997,536 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 1.7% in 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 purchasing an additional 349,369 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its position 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 valued at $10,256,368,000 after buying an additional 759,584 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Mastercard in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $605.00 target price on the stock. Susquehanna dropped their price target on Mastercard from $670.00 to $665.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Wolfe Research restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Mastercard in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $656.00 to $629.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Mastercard has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $653.81.

Key Mastercard News

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and Zacks-style screens say Mastercard has a strong track record of earnings beats and appears well positioned to top expectations again in its upcoming quarterly report.
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard announced a strategic partnership with VEON to expand accessible and inclusive digital financial services across Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, reinforcing long-term growth opportunities in emerging markets. VEON and Mastercard Join Forces to Accelerate Accessibility of Financial Services
• Positive Sentiment: Piper Sandler upgraded Mastercard from “overweight” to “strong-buy,” signaling improving analyst confidence in the company’s fundamentals and growth outlook.
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage comparing Mastercard with Visa and commentary on payments/stablecoin trends is broadly favorable for the sector, but it does not point to a direct near-term catalyst specific to Mastercard.

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.