Ethic Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Key Points

• Ethic Inc. increased its Mastercard stake by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, bringing its holdings to 89,316 shares worth about $50.99 million. Mastercard is now its 12th-largest position and makes up roughly 0.8% of the portfolio.
• Institutional ownership of Mastercard remains very high, with hedge funds and other institutions holding 97.28% of the stock. Several smaller investors also added to positions during the period.
• Mastercard continues to draw generally bullish analyst sentiment, with a consensus “Buy” rating and a target price of $657.07. The company also recently beat quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $4.60 EPS and 15.8% revenue growth year over year.

Ethic Inc. increased its position in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA - Free Report) by 3.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 89,316 shares of the credit services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 3,089 shares during the period. Mastercard accounts for approximately 0.8% of Ethic Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Ethic Inc.'s holdings in Mastercard were worth $50,989,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Tacita Capital Inc boosted its position in shares of Mastercard by 50.0% during the 3rd quarter. Tacita Capital Inc now owns 57 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Mastercard by 250.0% during the 3rd quarter. Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC now owns 56 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of Mastercard by 54.1% during the 4th quarter. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC now owns 57 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Dagco Inc. lifted its stake in Mastercard by 200.0% during the fourth quarter. Dagco Inc. now owns 66 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Joseph Group Capital Management acquired a new position in Mastercard in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company's stock.

Trending Headlines about Mastercard

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard launched a regional SME resilience program in the Middle East and North Africa to help small businesses navigate conflict-related trade disruptions, rising energy costs, and logistics strain, which could expand Mastercard’s role in business payments across the region. Mastercard Rallies Partners to Support MENA Small Businesses
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard and Yellow Card are piloting stablecoin payment use cases in EEMEA, adding to the company’s push into digital asset and next-generation payment infrastructure. Mastercard, Yellow Card to pilot stablecoin payment use cases in EEMEA
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts at Erste Group Bank raised FY2026 and FY2027 earnings estimates for Mastercard, reinforcing expectations for continued earnings growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard is being tied to multiple tokenized treasury and stablecoin initiatives with partners like JPMorgan, Ripple, and Ondo, which highlights its growing presence in blockchain-based payments and settlement. Ondo, JPMorgan, Mastercard & Ripple complete cross-border Treasury redemption
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles note that Mastercard is a trending stock and worth watching, but they do not add new fundamentals or catalysts on their own. Mastercard Incorporated (MA) Is a Trending Stock: Facts to Know Before Betting on It
• Neutral Sentiment: Mastercard is preparing to launch services in Syria after a 15-year hiatus, a potentially incremental market expansion but not an immediate earnings driver. Mastercard prepares to launch services in Syria after 15 years
• Negative Sentiment: Macquarie lowered its price target on Mastercard, and Susquehanna also trimmed its target while noting slower April cross-border travel growth, signaling some caution around near-term volume trends. Here’s Why Macquarie Lowered PT on MasterCard (MA)
• Negative Sentiment: UK regulators are probing Mastercard, Visa, and PayPal over suspected anti-competitive conduct, which could increase legal and compliance risk for the payments industry. UK probes Mastercard, Visa, PayPal over suspected anti-competitive conduct

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on MA. Wolfe Research reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Mastercard in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Daiwa Securities Group set a $610.00 target price on shares of Mastercard and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Mastercard from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Macquarie Infrastructure boosted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $660.00 to $675.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Mastercard from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $600.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Mastercard currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $657.07.

Mastercard Price Performance

MA stock opened at $495.39 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $506.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $534.56. The company has a market capitalization of $441.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.67, a PEG ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.76. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $480.50 and a twelve month high of $601.77. 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 (NYSE:MA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.41 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.26 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.88% and a return on equity of 212.96%. Mastercard's revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.73 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.58 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, May 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th were issued a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Mastercard's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.14%.

About Mastercard

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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