Mastercard - MA Stock Forecast, Price & News

Mastercard Incorporated, a technology company, provides transaction processing and other payment-related products and services in the United States and internationally. It facilitates the processing of payment transactions, including authorization, clearing, and settlement, as well as delivers other payment-related products and services. The company offers integrated products and value-added services for account holders, merchants, financial institutions, businesses, governments, and other organizations, such as programs that enable issuers to provide consumers with credits to defer payments; prepaid programs and management services; commercial credit and debit payment products and solutions; and payment products and solutions that allow its customers to access funds in deposit and other accounts. It also provides value-added products and services comprising cyber and intelligence solutions for parties to transact, as well as proprietary insights, drawing on principled use of consumer, and merchant data services. In addition, the company offers analytics, test and learn, consulting, managed services, loyalty, processing, and payment gateway solutions for e-commerce merchants. Further, it provides open banking and digital identity platforms services. The company offers payment solutions and services under the MasterCard, Maestro, and Cirrus. Mastercard Incorporated was founded in 1966 and is headquartered in Purchase, New York.

Mastercard Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:MA opened at $353.38 on Thursday. Mastercard has a 12 month low of $303.65 and a 12 month high of $399.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.20, a current ratio of 1.26 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The firm has a market capitalization of $341.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.04. The company's fifty day moving average price is $335.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $347.54.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA - Get Rating) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 28th. The credit services provider reported $2.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.20. Mastercard had a net margin of 46.49% and a return on equity of 143.35%. The company had revenue of $5.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.26 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.95 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 21.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Mastercard will post 10.64 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 9th. Investors of record on Friday, July 8th were issued a $0.49 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 7th. This represents a $1.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Mastercard's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.86%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MA. Mizuho raised their price objective on Mastercard from $375.00 to $385.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 29th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Mastercard from $452.00 to $457.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, July 29th. Truist Financial reduced their price target on Mastercard from $450.00 to $420.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 30th. Macquarie cut their price objective on Mastercard from $440.00 to $410.00 in a report on Friday, July 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Mastercard from $450.00 to $400.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $414.55.

Insider Activity at Mastercard

In other news, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 106,330 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $333.03, for a total value of $35,411,079.90. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 103,629,316 shares of the company's stock, valued at $34,511,671,107.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.29% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.