Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) Stock Has Average Price Target of $682.66

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) has been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the thirty-four analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, thirty have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $682.66.

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore upped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $550.00 to $620.00 in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Mastercard from $679.00 to $681.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. KeyCorp lifted their target price on Mastercard from $670.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Clear Str upgraded Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group raised their price target on Mastercard from $580.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Mastercard news, Director Julius Genachowski sold 370 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $590.21, for a total value of $218,377.70. Following the transaction, the director owned 8,237 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,861,559.77. This represents a 4.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, 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 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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 31,179 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,781,695.49. The trade was a 12.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 72,676 shares of company stock valued at $41,966,586 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,964,305 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $18,984,867,000 after purchasing an additional 486,283 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 10.4% during the first quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,123,041 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,559,779,000 after buying an additional 480,725 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 1.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,225,359 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,111,216,000 after buying an additional 42,871 shares during the period. Amundi increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 5.8% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 3,626,416 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,862,527,000 after buying an additional 199,424 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 17.8% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,666,018 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,831,763,000 after acquiring an additional 554,366 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of MA opened at $622.28 on Friday. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $545.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.76. Mastercard has a 1 year low of $464.52 and a 1 year high of $624.66. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $579.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $537.92.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its 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. The firm had revenue of $9.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.08 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 46.34% and a return on equity of 239.99%. Mastercard’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $4.15 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Mastercard will post 19.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 9th. Investors of record on Friday, October 9th will be given a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is 19.14%.

More Mastercard News

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard launched its Global Money Platform with BVNK, enabling businesses to hold, convert and spend stablecoins alongside traditional currencies. The platform could create additional cross-border payment volume and strengthen Mastercard’s position as digital assets become integrated with mainstream commerce. Mastercard BVNK stablecoin platform
• Positive Sentiment: The company introduced Stablecoin Security, an API that screens transactions for fraud, scams and sanctions exposure before funds move on-chain. The product may reduce banks’ compliance concerns and provide Mastercard with a new risk-management revenue stream while supporting broader stablecoin adoption. Mastercard stablecoin security
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard is opening developer APIs and demonstrating agent-pay capabilities that allow AI software to make multiple merchant payments within an approved budget. The initiative positions the network to capture emerging autonomous-commerce transactions and builds on the company’s data and AI capabilities. Mastercard AI agent payments
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and financial commentators view Mastercard as a high-quality compounder that may still be reasonably valued: shares trade at about 33.4 times earnings versus a recent 12-quarter average of 34.8 times. However, comparative value coverage of Corpay and Mastercard suggests investors are weighing MA’s stronger growth and margins against its higher valuation. Is the market underpricing Mastercard
• Negative Sentiment: Mastercard’s CFO Ling Hai sold 4,317 shares worth approximately $2.7 million under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. The scheduled nature of the transaction limits its significance, but it remains a modest negative sentiment factor while the stock trades near record levels.
• Negative Sentiment: With MA valued at roughly 33 times earnings and near its 52-week high, expectations remain elevated. Investors will likely require continued strong execution after the latest quarter’s 14.1% revenue growth and earnings beat to justify further multiple expansion.

About Mastercard

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 electronic payments and provides technology that supports transactions conducted through credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payment products.

In addition to operating its payments network, Mastercard offers services in areas such as payment security, fraud prevention, authentication, cybersecurity, data and analytics, loyalty programs, digital identity and open banking.