11,424 Mastercard Incorporated $MA Shares Sold by Confluence Investment Management LLC

Confluence Investment Management LLC cut its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 8.4% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 125,090 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 11,424 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $68,983,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MA. Athena Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Mastercard by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Athena Wealth Management LLC now owns 514 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $264,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Novem Group raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 0.4% during the second quarter. Novem Group now owns 4,680 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,404,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 4.5% during the second quarter. Vista Capital Partners Inc. now owns 444 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $228,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Buckley Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Buckley Wealth Management LLC now owns 2,504 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,430,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Cladis Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in Mastercard by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Cladis Investment Advisory LLC now owns 428 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $245,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Sachin Mehra sold 7,444 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.13, for a total value of $4,296,155.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 40,916 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,613,851.08. This trade represents a 15.39% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $570.31, for a total value of $2,440,926.80. Following the transaction, the insider owned 31,179 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,781,695.49. This trade represents a 12.07% 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 a total of 67,818 shares of company stock valued at $38,962,630 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on MA shares. Rothschild & Co Redburn decreased their target price on Mastercard from $710.00 to $688.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 2nd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Mastercard from $580.00 to $630.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Barclays raised their price target on Mastercard from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $655.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Mastercard to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Mastercard presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $680.00.

Mastercard Stock Down 0.2%

Mastercard stock traded down $1.28 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $550.19. The stock had a trading volume of 1,058,689 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,538,957. The company has a market cap of $481.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.24, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $570.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $527.99. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52 week low of $464.52 and a 52 week high of $601.23.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The credit services provider reported $5.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.77 by $0.27. Mastercard had a net margin of 46.34% and a return on equity of 239.99%. The business had revenue of $9.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.08 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $4.15 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.9 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be paid a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.14%.

Mastercard News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard is expanding into artificial-intelligence-driven payments. Its B2B Analytics solution is designed to identify suppliers likely to accept commercial cards, potentially increasing payment volume and helping banks grow their commercial-card businesses. Mastercard advances commercial payments with AI-powered B2B analytics solution
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard’s Agent Pay and new risk-insights tools are positioning the network for “agentic commerce,” in which AI systems make purchases autonomously. This could create a new addressable market, although revenue benefits are likely longer term. Mastercard Deploys New Risk Insights to Support Agentic Payments
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard continues to build its stablecoin and digital-payments ecosystem through partnerships involving Stripe, Visa and Coinbase, while Apple Pay’s launch in India supports Mastercard cardholders and expands digital-wallet acceptance. Stablecoin industry economics
• Neutral Sentiment: The board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.87 per share, or $3.48 annualized, with a yield of approximately 0.6%. The payout reinforces shareholder returns but is unlikely to materially affect valuation. Mastercard quarterly dividend announcement
• Negative Sentiment: Recent coverage attributed Mastercard’s weaker session to underperformance versus the broader market, but provided no major company-specific deterioration. Investors may also be weighing the stock’s premium valuation, with a price-to-earnings ratio near 30.
• Negative Sentiment: Mastercard and Visa face a $167.5 million ATM-fee settlement, which could create a modest legal and reputational overhang, although the financial impact appears limited relative to Mastercard’s size. Visa and Mastercard ATM settlement

Mastercard Profile

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) is a global payments technology company that operates a network connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses. The company facilitates the authorization, clearing and settlement of electronic payment transactions, while generally not issuing cards or extending credit itself. Its network supports payments made in stores, online and through mobile devices.

Mastercard’s products and services include consumer and commercial payment cards, digital payment solutions, payment processing, fraud prevention, cybersecurity, identity verification, data and analytics, and open banking tools.