Mastercard Incorporated $MA is Investidor Profissional Gestao de Recursos Ltda.'s Largest Position

Key Points

• Investidor Profissional Gestao de Recursos Ltda. boosted its Mastercard stake by 39.6% in the first quarter, making Mastercard its largest holding at about 6.0% of the portfolio.
• Mastercard reported strong first-quarter earnings, with EPS of $4.60 beating estimates and revenue rising 15.8% year over year to $8.40 billion.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.87 per share, payable August 7, while analysts continue to rate the stock a consensus Buy with a target price of about $653.92.

Investidor Profissional Gestao de Recursos Ltda. increased its holdings in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA - Free Report) by 39.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 36,874 shares of the credit services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 10,464 shares during the quarter. Mastercard accounts for about 6.0% of Investidor Profissional Gestao de Recursos Ltda.'s holdings, making the stock its largest holding. Investidor Profissional Gestao de Recursos Ltda.'s holdings in Mastercard were worth $18,424,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Mastercard by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,897,854 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $45,612,087,000 after buying an additional 466,514 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its position 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 in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Mastercard by 2.8% during 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. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Mastercard by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,686,605 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $11,773,153,000 after acquiring an additional 349,369 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors grew its stake in Mastercard by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 17,964,658 shares of the credit services provider's stock valued at $10,256,368,000 after acquiring an additional 759,584 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company's stock.

Mastercard Trading Down 1.8%

MA opened at $537.33 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $474.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.73. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $505.73 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $515.35. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1-year low of $464.52 and a 1-year high of $601.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.26 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.73 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be issued a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 9th. Mastercard's dividend payout ratio is presently 20.14%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on MA shares. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $605.00 target price on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Mastercard from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Piper Sandler began coverage on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Monday, June 29th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $597.00 target price for the company. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Mastercard from $671.00 to $664.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $653.92.

Trending Headlines about Mastercard

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard and Al Etihad Payments announced the first co-badged Jaywan-Mastercard credit card, a new partnership that could expand Mastercard’s footprint in the UAE and support payment-network volume growth. Al Etihad Payments, Mastercard launch world's first Jaywan-Mastercard co-badged credit card
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard was highlighted as a strong momentum stock, reinforcing the view that the company still has favorable fundamental and trading characteristics despite recent weakness. Here's Why MasterCard (MA) is a Strong Momentum Stock
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard and Lithic introduced a way to make small-business loan proceeds spend-ready, a payments-adjacent product that could deepen Mastercard’s role in SMB finance workflows. Lithic and Mastercard Make SMB Loans Ready to Spend

Insider Buying and Selling at Mastercard

In other news, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 200 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $540.00, for a total transaction of $108,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 3,322 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,793,880. The trade was a 5.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Raj Seshadri sold 1,977 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.73, for a total transaction of $1,047,276.21. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,702,934.17. The trade was a 10.74% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 7,005 shares of company stock valued at $3,689,976. 0.09% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Mastercard Company 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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