Susquehanna Issues Positive Forecast for Mastercard (NYSE:MA) Stock Price

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) had its price objective upped by Susquehanna from $540.00 to $605.00 in a report issued on Friday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a positive rating on the credit services provider’s stock.

MA has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Argus upgraded Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. BNP Paribas cut Mastercard from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $470.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. William Blair upgraded Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Barclays upped their price target on Mastercard from $536.00 to $576.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, KeyCorp increased their target price on Mastercard from $515.00 to $580.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Mastercard has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $537.92.

Mastercard Price Performance

MA stock traded up $8.49 during trading on Friday, hitting $508.08. The stock had a trading volume of 3,753,713 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,450,197. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $495.77 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $466.84. Mastercard has a 1-year low of $378.48 and a 1-year high of $527.90. The stock has a market cap of $469.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.14.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.73 by $0.16. Mastercard had a net margin of 46.45% and a return on equity of 179.78%. The company had revenue of $7.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.27 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.39 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Mastercard will post 14.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 9th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.52%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.18%.

Insider Transactions at Mastercard

In related news, CFO J. Mehra Sachin sold 13,439 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.00, for a total value of $6,114,745.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,304 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,423,320. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, CFO J. Mehra Sachin sold 13,439 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $455.00, for a total transaction of $6,114,745.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 27,304 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,423,320. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 119,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $468.46, for a total transaction of $55,746,740.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 92,033,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,113,923,465.68. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 340,809 shares of company stock worth $159,610,703 in the last 90 days. 0.10% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Mastercard

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MA. Highline Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Mastercard in the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Palisade Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Mastercard during the first quarter worth about $27,000. Strategic Investment Solutions Inc. IL bought a new position in Mastercard during the second quarter worth about $34,000. First Personal Financial Services bought a new position in Mastercard during the third quarter worth about $39,000. Finally, Fairway Wealth LLC bought a new position in Mastercard during the second quarter worth about $35,000. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

About Mastercard

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.