Fulcrum Asset Management LLP Decreases Stock Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Key Points

• Fulcrum Asset Management LLP cut its Mastercard stake by 89.2% in Q4, selling 11,724 shares and leaving 1,416 shares (institutional investors still own about 97.28% of the stock).
• Mastercard reported a strong quarter on April 30, with EPS of $4.60 beating the $4.41 estimate and revenue of $8.40 billion (up 15.8% year‑over‑year), and analysts forecast roughly 19.58 EPS for the year.
• The company is expanding into crypto and tokenized settlement (stablecoin partnerships and a tokenized Treasury pilot) and growing B2B products, but it also faces regulatory risk from a UK competition investigation into digital wallet funding.

Fulcrum Asset Management LLP decreased its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA - Free Report) by 89.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,416 shares of the credit services provider's stock after selling 11,724 shares during the period. Fulcrum Asset Management LLP's holdings in Mastercard were worth $808,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vulcan Value Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Mastercard by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Vulcan Value Partners LLC now owns 466,222 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $265,233,000 after buying an additional 28,331 shares in the last quarter. Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC raised its stake in Mastercard by 153.6% in the 3rd quarter. Nicholson Wealth Management Group LLC now owns 2,856 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $1,625,000 after purchasing an additional 1,730 shares during the last quarter. Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. acquired a new position in Mastercard in the 4th quarter valued at $1,113,000. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. raised its stake in Mastercard by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Mn Services Vermogensbeheer B.V. now owns 309,192 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $175,872,000 after purchasing an additional 4,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in Mastercard by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 229,299 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $130,902,000 after purchasing an additional 9,795 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company's stock.

Mastercard Stock Up 1.8%

NYSE MA opened at $500.98 on Friday. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52 week low of $480.50 and a 52 week high of $601.77. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $506.14 and its 200-day simple moving average is $534.56. The firm has a market cap of $446.78 billion, a PE ratio of 28.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.76.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.41 by $0.19. Mastercard had a return on equity of 212.96% and a net margin of 45.88%.The business had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.73 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.58 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 8th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.87 per share. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. Mastercard's payout ratio is currently 20.14%.

More Mastercard News

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Launched a regional SME resilience program to help small businesses improve payments resilience and access — supports payment volume growth and client retention. Mastercard launches regional SME resilience program
• Positive Sentiment: Moves deeper into stablecoins and crypto rails (partnerships with BVNK and Yellow Card) to enable stablecoin payments in EEMEA — potential new revenue streams and product differentiation. Here’s Why Mastercard Is Betting Big on BVNK — and Stablecoin
• Positive Sentiment: Partnership enabling stablecoin payments in EEMEA (Yellow Card) highlighted by market coverage — incremental payment volume opportunities in high-growth regions. Mastercard (MA) Stock Gains as Yellow Card Partnership Brings Stablecoin Payments to EEMEA
• Positive Sentiment: Participated in a pilot to settle a tokenized U.S. Treasury redemption across borders with JPMorgan, Ripple and Ondo — signals progress on real‑time, institutional settlement rails that could lower costs and open product lines. Ripple, JPMorgan & Mastercard Pull Off First Tokenized Treasury Deal
• Positive Sentiment: Pushing virtual cards beyond payables to expand B2B product penetration — strategy helps capture higher‑value commercial payments. Mastercard Pushes Virtual Cards Beyond Payables
• Positive Sentiment: Coverage highlighting a resilient dividend profile and strong cash flow supports investor sentiment on capital returns. Here’s Why Mastercard’s Dividend Payout Looks Bulletproof
• Neutral Sentiment: Preparing to re‑enter Syria after 15 years — potential revenue in a new/returning market but geopolitical and compliance risks make the near‑term impact uncertain. Mastercard prepares to launch services in Syria after 15 years
• Neutral Sentiment: Susquehanna and other research notes maintained positive/Outperform stances but trimmed price targets after Q1; analysts cite strong start to the year with some April slowdown (cross‑border travel deceleration). Susquehanna Maintains Positive Rating on Mastercard (MA)
• Neutral Sentiment: Crypto network activity (XRP new addresses) fell sharply — industry context but only indirectly relevant to Mastercard’s crypto initiatives. XRP new addresses sink to 18-month low
• Negative Sentiment: U.K. competition authorities opened an investigation into PayPal, Visa and Mastercard over suspected anti‑competitive conduct related to digital wallet funding/usage — regulatory risk that could lead to fines, business restrictions or remediation costs. PayPal, Visa and Mastercard Face UK Competition Investigation
• Negative Sentiment: Macquarie cut its price target on MA (reflecting near‑term growth and travel cadence concerns), which can weigh on sentiment despite maintained conviction. Here’s Why Macquarie Lowered PT on MasterCard (MA)

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Raymond James Financial set a $609.00 price objective on Mastercard in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings downgraded Mastercard from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Compass Point raised Mastercard from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $620.00 to $735.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Wolfe Research reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on Mastercard from $685.00 to $655.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Mastercard currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $657.07.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.