Mastercard’s (MA) Overweight Rating Reaffirmed at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Mastercard (NYSE:MA) in a research note released on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. Piper Sandler currently has a $565.00 price objective on the credit services provider’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $536.00.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on MA. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $528.00 to $538.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $536.00 to $576.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $545.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $500.00 to $526.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $532.00 to $533.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $537.92.

Mastercard Trading Up 1.7 %

Mastercard stock traded up $8.49 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $508.08. The stock had a trading volume of 3,753,713 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,450,197. The stock has a market cap of $469.38 billion, a PE ratio of 38.86, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.10. Mastercard has a 52 week low of $378.48 and a 52 week high of $527.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.95, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $495.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $466.84.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.73 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $7.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.27 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 46.45% and a return on equity of 179.78%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.39 EPS. Analysts forecast that Mastercard will post 14.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th will be paid a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.18%.

Insider Transactions at Mastercard

In other Mastercard news, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 4,685 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $489.86, for a total transaction of $2,294,994.10. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 15,031 shares in the company, valued at $7,363,085.66. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 90,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $468.80, for a total value of $42,192,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 91,649,308 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,965,195,590.40. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 4,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $489.86, for a total transaction of $2,294,994.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 15,031 shares in the company, valued at $7,363,085.66. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 340,809 shares of company stock worth $159,610,703. Insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Mastercard

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Goldstein Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Goldstein Advisors LLC now owns 1,516 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $749,000 after buying an additional 20 shares during the period. McLean Asset Management Corp increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 1,677 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $834,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the period. Oldfather Financial Services LLC increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Oldfather Financial Services LLC now owns 827 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $408,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the period. Transcendent Capital Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Transcendent Capital Group LLC now owns 455 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $225,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the period. Finally, Quilter Plc increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Quilter Plc now owns 801 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $353,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the period. 97.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Mastercard Company Profile

Mastercard Incorporated, a technology company, provides transaction processing and other payment-related products and services in the United States and internationally. The company offers integrated products and value-added services for account holders, merchants, financial institutions, digital partners, businesses, governments, and other organizations, such as programs that enable issuers to provide consumers with credits to defer payments; payment products and solutions that allow its customers to access funds in deposit and other accounts; prepaid programs services; and commercial credit, debit, and prepaid payment products and solutions.