Arizona State Retirement System Reduces Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Arizona State Retirement System decreased its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 2.1% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 227,208 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 4,880 shares during the quarter. Mastercard comprises 0.6% of Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Arizona State Retirement System’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $116,694,000 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 MA. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 7.3% in the 1st quarter. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd now owns 139,844 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $70,089,000 after buying an additional 9,504 shares during the period. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan grew its holdings in Mastercard by 6.1% during the fourth quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan now owns 65,414 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $37,344,000 after acquiring an additional 3,768 shares during the period. Marble Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Mastercard during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,328,000. Charles Lim Capital Ltd purchased a new position in Mastercard during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $15,699,000. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its holdings in Mastercard by 5.4% in the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 28,205 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $14,093,000 after acquiring an additional 1,434 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Michael Miebach sold 15,372 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $575.00, for a total value of $8,838,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 93,693 shares in the company, valued at $53,873,475. This trade represents a 14.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 Linda Kirkpatrick sold 4,280 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $570.31, for a total transaction of $2,440,926.80. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 31,179 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $17,781,695.49. This represents a 12.07% decrease in their position. 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 have sold 74,623 shares of company stock worth $42,544,606 in the last 90 days. 0.09% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Mastercard Price Performance

MA traded down $8.86 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $570.35. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,705,394 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,620,135. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $464.52 and a twelve month high of $601.62. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $559.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $521.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $499.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.37, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.74.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The credit services provider reported $5.04 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.77 by $0.27. The business had revenue of $9.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.08 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 239.99% and a net margin of 46.34%.The business’s revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $4.15 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 9th were issued a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 9th. Mastercard’s payout ratio is presently 19.14%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Clear Str upgraded Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $665.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Mastercard from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, August 17th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of Mastercard from $642.00 to $696.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $666.64.

Mastercard Company Profile

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.