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Mastercard (MA) Competitors

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$580.75 -7.98 (-1.36%)
Closing price 09/12/2025 03:59 PM Eastern
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$580.75 0.00 (0.00%)
As of 09/12/2025 07:59 PM Eastern
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MA vs. AFRM, GOOG, PYPL, AXP, BRK.A, BRK.B, FIS, GPN, V, and WU

Should you be buying Mastercard stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Mastercard include Affirm (AFRM), Alphabet (GOOG), PayPal (PYPL), American Express (AXP), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), Global Payments (GPN), Visa (V), and Western Union (WU).

Mastercard vs. Its Competitors

Affirm (NASDAQ:AFRM) and Mastercard (NYSE:MA) are related large-cap companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, media sentiment, earnings and dividends.

Affirm currently has a consensus price target of $80.04, suggesting a potential downside of 3.65%. Mastercard has a consensus price target of $626.54, suggesting a potential upside of 7.88%. Given Mastercard's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Mastercard is more favorable than Affirm.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
Affirm
0 Sell rating(s)
11 Hold rating(s)
18 Buy rating(s)
1 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.67
Mastercard
0 Sell rating(s)
3 Hold rating(s)
24 Buy rating(s)
2 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.97

In the previous week, Mastercard had 51 more articles in the media than Affirm. MarketBeat recorded 61 mentions for Mastercard and 10 mentions for Affirm. Mastercard's average media sentiment score of 1.44 beat Affirm's score of 0.61 indicating that Mastercard is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Affirm
2 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
3 Neutral mention(s)
1 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Mastercard
53 Very Positive mention(s)
2 Positive mention(s)
6 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

Mastercard has higher revenue and earnings than Affirm. Mastercard is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Affirm, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
Affirm$3.24B8.34$52.19M$0.13639.08
Mastercard$28.17B18.64$12.87B$14.8339.16

Mastercard has a net margin of 44.93% compared to Affirm's net margin of 1.62%. Mastercard's return on equity of 200.01% beat Affirm's return on equity.

Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets
Affirm1.62% 1.80% 0.49%
Mastercard 44.93%200.01%29.26%

Affirm has a beta of 3.64, suggesting that its stock price is 264% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mastercard has a beta of 0.99, suggesting that its stock price is 1% less volatile than the S&P 500.

69.3% of Affirm shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.3% of Mastercard shares are held by institutional investors. 11.8% of Affirm shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Mastercard shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Mastercard beats Affirm on 14 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MA and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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MA vs. The Competition

MetricMastercardFinancial Transaction Services IndustryBusiness SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$524.70B$33.25B$26.52B$21.54B
Dividend Yield0.52%2.23%2.73%3.50%
P/E Ratio39.1639.9727.1929.75
Price / Sales18.6416.29818.6752.78
Price / Cash32.6118.1625.8718.13
Price / Book81.457.237.794.63
Net Income$12.87B$1.12B$199.52M$999.94M
7 Day Performance-0.59%3.33%10.05%0.68%
1 Month Performance-0.58%4.44%20.10%4.02%
1 Year Performance17.71%28.62%51.70%16.39%

Mastercard Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
MA
Mastercard
4.8413 of 5 stars
$580.75
-1.4%
$626.54
+7.9%
+17.7%$524.70B$28.17B39.1635,300News Coverage
Positive News
AFRM
Affirm
2.1628 of 5 stars
$86.97
-0.4%
$79.04
-9.1%
+88.8%$28.32B$3.24B668.962,206Analyst Forecast
GOOG
Alphabet
4.5947 of 5 stars
$234.24
-0.3%
$227.56
-2.9%
+52.4%$2.83T$350.02B24.92190,200Trending News
Short Interest ↓
PYPL
PayPal
4.83 of 5 stars
$68.32
+0.1%
$85.00
+24.4%
-4.6%$65.22B$31.80B14.5924,400Positive News
AXP
American Express
4.2753 of 5 stars
$325.61
-0.2%
$313.45
-3.7%
+25.6%$226.83B$65.95B22.8775,100News Coverage
Positive News
BRK.A
Berkshire Hathaway
0.7433 of 5 stars
$741,097.65
-1.2%
N/A+10.4%$1.07T$371.43B16.95372,000News Coverage
BRK.B
Berkshire Hathaway
2.1568 of 5 stars
$494.28
-1.1%
$575.00
+16.3%
+10.3%$1.07T$371.43B16.96392,400Analyst Upgrade
FIS
Fidelity National Information Services
4.6016 of 5 stars
$68.52
-0.3%
$91.63
+33.7%
-20.5%$35.81B$10.13B380.8550,000News Coverage
Positive News
GPN
Global Payments
4.9888 of 5 stars
$87.21
-0.6%
$112.21
+28.7%
-22.7%$21.09B$10.11B15.2027,000News Coverage
Positive News
V
Visa
4.8803 of 5 stars
$342.60
-0.2%
$385.96
+12.7%
+18.1%$628.57B$35.93B33.4931,600News Coverage
Positive News
WU
Western Union
4.1403 of 5 stars
$8.70
-1.6%
$8.61
-1.0%
-28.9%$2.80B$4.21B3.299,100

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This page (NYSE:MA) was last updated on 9/14/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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