Mastercard’s (MA) Overweight Rating Reaffirmed at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler reissued their overweight rating on shares of Mastercard (NYSE:MA) in a report issued on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $575.00 target price on the credit services provider’s stock, up from their prior target price of $565.00.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Mastercard from $550.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Bank of America boosted their target price on Mastercard from $480.00 to $509.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Mastercard from $532.00 to $533.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Mastercard from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $470.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $510.00 to $580.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $549.16.

Mastercard Price Performance

NYSE:MA traded up $1.49 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $521.89. 2,408,193 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,452,135. The firm has a market cap of $479.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $504.09 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $471.04. Mastercard has a 52 week low of $395.55 and a 52 week high of $534.03.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.73 by $0.16. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.26% and a return on equity of 178.27%. The company had revenue of $7.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.39 earnings per share. Mastercard’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Mastercard will post 14.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th were given a dividend of $0.66 per share. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.97%.

Insider Transactions at Mastercard

In related news, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 109,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $467.45, for a total transaction of $50,952,050.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 91,924,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $42,970,017,774.60. This represents a 0.12 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 4,685 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $489.86, for a total transaction of $2,294,994.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 15,031 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,363,085.66. This trade represents a 23.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 208,370 shares of company stock valued at $97,749,218 in the last three months. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Mastercard

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MA. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Mastercard by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 35,288,912 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $17,425,665,000 after acquiring an additional 257,312 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,355,081 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $10,545,139,000 after buying an additional 700,769 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 2.5% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,375,053 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $9,043,972,000 after acquiring an additional 453,773 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Mastercard by 0.3% in the first quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 13,651,904 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $6,574,347,000 after acquiring an additional 43,881 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Mastercard by 120,665.3% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 8,041,758 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,971,020,000 after purchasing an additional 8,035,099 shares during the period. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Mastercard Company Profile

Mastercard Incorporated, a technology company, provides transaction processing and other payment-related products and services in the United States and internationally. The company offers integrated products and value-added services for account holders, merchants, financial institutions, digital partners, businesses, governments, and other organizations, such as programs that enable issuers to provide consumers with credits to defer payments; payment products and solutions that allow its customers to access funds in deposit and other accounts; prepaid programs services; and commercial credit, debit, and prepaid payment products and solutions.