D.A. Davidson & CO. Grows Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 2.9% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 36,354 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,008 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $18,165,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position 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 valued at $45,612,087,000 after acquiring an additional 466,514 shares during the period. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its stake 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 worth $41,444,231,000 after acquiring an additional 72,461,743 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted 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 acquiring an additional 997,536 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Mastercard by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,686,605 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $11,773,153,000 after acquiring an additional 349,369 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its stake in Mastercard by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 17,964,658 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $10,256,368,000 after purchasing an additional 759,584 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MA has been the topic of a number of research reports. Loop Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $631.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Truist Financial decreased their target price on Mastercard from $590.00 to $561.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Susquehanna dropped their target price on Mastercard from $670.00 to $665.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $679.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $640.00 price target for the company. Seven 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Mastercard has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $653.92.

Mastercard Price Performance

Shares of MA opened at $551.15 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $503.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $516.04. The company has a market capitalization of $486.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.90, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.73. Mastercard Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $464.52 and a fifty-two week high of $601.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $4.41 by $0.19. Mastercard had a return on equity of 212.96% and a net margin of 45.88%.The business had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.73 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.62 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

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

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 transaction of $108,000.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 3,322 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,793,880. This trade represents a 5.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Raj Seshadri sold 4,828 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,625,225. This trade represents a 22.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 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 three months. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.