Mastercard (MA) Competitors

Visa (NYSE:V) and Mastercard (NYSE:MA) are both large-cap business services companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, analyst recommendations, community ranking, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends, profitability and media sentiment.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor V or MA?

Visa received 839 more outperform votes than Mastercard when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 80.37% of users gave Visa an outperform vote while only 73.12% of users gave Mastercard an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Visa	Outperform Votes 2403 80.37%	Underperform Votes 587 19.63%
Mastercard	Outperform Votes 1564 73.12%	Underperform Votes 575 26.88%

Which has more risk and volatility, V or MA?

Visa has a beta of 0.94, meaning that its share price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mastercard has a beta of 1.05, meaning that its share price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Do analysts recommend V or MA?

Visa currently has a consensus target price of $372.80, suggesting a potential upside of 9.60%. Mastercard has a consensus target price of $610.00, suggesting a potential upside of 13.29%. Given Mastercard's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Mastercard is more favorable than Visa.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Visa	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	22 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.86
Mastercard	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	24 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.88

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in V or MA?

82.2% of Visa shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.3% of Mastercard shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Visa shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Mastercard shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is V or MA a better dividend stock?

Visa pays an annual dividend of $2.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Mastercard pays an annual dividend of $3.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Visa pays out 23.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Mastercard pays out 21.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Visa has increased its dividend for 17 consecutive years and Mastercard has increased its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Visa is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media refer more to V or MA?

In the previous week, Visa had 14 more articles in the media than Mastercard. MarketBeat recorded 98 mentions for Visa and 84 mentions for Mastercard. Mastercard's average media sentiment score of 1.28 beat Visa's score of 1.24 indicating that Mastercard is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Visa	76 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	11 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Mastercard	73 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has preferable valuation and earnings, V or MA?

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

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Visa	$35.93B	17.47	$19.74B	$9.95	34.19
Mastercard	$28.17B	17.43	$12.87B	$14.26	37.76

Is V or MA more profitable?

Visa has a net margin of 52.86% compared to Mastercard's net margin of 45.21%. Mastercard's return on equity of 196.87% beat Visa's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Visa	52.86%	56.28%	22.94%
Mastercard	45.21%	196.87%	29.77%

Summary

Mastercard beats Visa on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.