Abacus FCF Advisors LLC Invests $7.22 Million in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Abacus FCF Advisors LLC bought a new position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA - Free Report) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 14,063 shares of the credit services provider's stock, valued at approximately $7,223,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of MA. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 53,535.0% during the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 72,597,097 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $41,444,231,000 after buying an additional 72,461,743 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Mastercard during the 4th quarter valued at about $6,705,708,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its holdings in Mastercard by 861.6% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 4,072,210 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $2,324,743,000 after purchasing an additional 3,648,748 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Mastercard by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,580,374 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $20,807,283,000 after acquiring an additional 997,536 shares during the period. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp bought a new position in shares of Mastercard in the fourth quarter worth about $497,311,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on MA shares. Clear Str raised shares of Mastercard to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. KeyCorp raised their target price on Mastercard from $670.00 to $680.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, July 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $665.00 to $685.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Cantor Fitzgerald boosted their price objective on Mastercard from $650.00 to $695.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Mastercard from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mastercard has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $664.71.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mastercard

In other news, insider J. Mehra Sachin sold 7,444 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $577.13, for a total value of $4,296,155.72. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 40,916 shares in the company, valued at $23,613,851.08. This trade represents a 15.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Michael Miebach sold 16,628 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction on Friday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $567.68, for a total transaction of $9,439,383.04. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 115,921 shares in the company, valued at $65,806,033.28. The trade was a 12.54% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 sold 71,357 shares of company stock valued at $40,637,262 in the last 90 days. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Mastercard Stock Down 0.2%

Mastercard stock opened at $598.69 on Wednesday. Mastercard Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $464.52 and a fifty-two week high of $601.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $524.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.93, a PEG ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.72. 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 company's 50 day simple moving average is $542.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $518.46.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The credit services provider reported $5.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.77 by $0.27. Mastercard had a return on equity of 239.99% and a net margin of 46.34%.The firm had revenue of $9.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.08 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $4.15 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 14.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.86 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 9th were issued a dividend of $0.87 per share. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 9th. Mastercard's dividend payout ratio is 19.14%.

Mastercard 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.

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