Cwm LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Key Points

• Cwm LLC trimmed its Mastercard stake by 5.3%, selling 4,691 shares in Q4 and now holds 83,248 shares valued at about $47.53 million per its latest 13F filing.
• Institutional ownership remains very high (97.28%), with major funds like Vanguard, State Street, Capital Research and Invesco increasing their positions, signaling strong institutional support.
• Analysts and fundamentals are favorable: Mastercard has a consensus "Buy" rating with an average target of $662, recently beat EPS and revenue expectations, and announced a $0.87 quarterly dividend (0.7% yield).

Cwm LLC trimmed its holdings in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA - Free Report) by 5.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 83,248 shares of the credit services provider's stock after selling 4,691 shares during the period. Cwm LLC's holdings in Mastercard were worth $47,525,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Mastercard by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,431,340 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $45,181,341,000 after buying an additional 955,533 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake 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 valued at $20,807,283,000 after buying an additional 997,536 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 10,347,834 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $5,885,944,000 after purchasing an additional 629,941 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,806,887 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $3,303,015,000 after purchasing an additional 235,403 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,658,547 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $3,218,638,000 after purchasing an additional 339,137 shares during the period. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Key Stories Impacting Mastercard

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Citigroup raised its price target on MA to $675, a bullish analyst signal that can support longer‑term upside and positive sentiment among growth investors. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard struck a decade‑long digital transformation deal with Nedbank covering SADC, which strengthens regional issuer/merchant relationships and can drive volume growth in Africa over the next several years. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Partnerships and product launches expand addressable markets: Mastercard is enabling AI‑agent payments via a tie‑up with lobster.cash and has a new Canadian co‑branded card with first‑class travel perks; both moves broaden use cases and premium card revenue potential. Read More. | Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard and FinVolution launched the Luvit Card in the Philippines to expand digital credit access—another geographic product rollout that can add transactional volume and fee income. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa and Mastercard reached settlements in merchant litigation, removing a legal overhang; settlement terms will determine the ultimate financial impact but the resolution reduces uncertainty. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst and earnings commentary remains constructive: Zacks highlights Mastercard’s strong surprise history and positions MA as likely to beat again, which supports expectations but is not new positive news. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary (Morgan Stanley inclusion in a market‑rally list) and macro data (weekly jobless claims) provide context for consumer spending trends that indirectly affect card volumes—beneficial if the macro environment holds. Read More. | Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Investor concerns over emerging technologies and related execution/competitive risks have pressured the stock, driving short‑term selling despite the company’s fundamentals and growth initiatives. Read More.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MA has been the subject of several analyst reports. TD Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Mastercard in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Mastercard from $665.00 to $678.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Evercore reissued a "negative" rating on shares of Mastercard in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Mastercard from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Sunday, March 15th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Mastercard has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $662.00.

Mastercard Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:MA opened at $518.87 on Friday. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52-week low of $480.50 and a 52-week high of $601.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $510.47 and a 200 day moving average of $540.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $462.73 billion, a PE ratio of 31.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.52. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.65% and a return on equity of 203.92%. The company had revenue of $8.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.80 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.82 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be given a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Mastercard's payout ratio is 21.07%.

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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