LGT Capital Partners LTD. Has $67.70 Million Stock Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

LGT Capital Partners LTD. raised its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 118,594 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,061 shares during the period. Mastercard accounts for 3.4% of LGT Capital Partners LTD.’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. LGT Capital Partners LTD.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $67,703,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Mastercard by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,897,854 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $45,612,087,000 after purchasing an additional 466,514 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in Mastercard by 2.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,580,374 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $20,807,283,000 after purchasing an additional 997,536 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Mastercard by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,686,605 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $11,773,153,000 after purchasing an additional 349,369 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 759,584 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Mastercard during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $6,705,708,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Trading Down 1.2%

Shares of Mastercard stock opened at $484.94 on Tuesday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $499.50 and its 200-day simple moving average is $524.72. The company has a market cap of $428.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.06, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1 year low of $464.52 and a 1 year high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.41 by $0.19. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.88% and a return on equity of 212.96%. The business had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.26 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.73 earnings per share. Mastercard’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.6 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on MA shares. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 19th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $679.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $656.04.

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.