West Family Investments Inc. Sells 5,494 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

West Family Investments Inc. lowered its position in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 64.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,972 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 5,494 shares during the quarter. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $1,468,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 120,665.3% during the third 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 acquiring an additional 8,035,099 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Mastercard during the 1st quarter valued at about $660,652,000. PineStone Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Mastercard by 145.6% in the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,777,468 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $784,148,000 after buying an additional 1,053,616 shares during the last quarter. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Mastercard in the second quarter worth approximately $259,071,000. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 13.3% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,293,617 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,586,107,000 after buying an additional 387,317 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $575.00 price objective (up from $565.00) on shares of Mastercard in a report on Friday. Macquarie upped their price target on Mastercard from $505.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $572.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, November 14th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on Mastercard from $533.00 to $567.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Mastercard from $536.00 to $576.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $549.16.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Mastercard news, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 90,000 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $468.80, for a total value of $42,192,000.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 91,649,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $42,965,195,590.40. The trade was a 0.10 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 4,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $489.86, for a total value of $2,294,994.10. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 15,031 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,363,085.66. This represents a 23.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 99,370 shares of company stock valued at $46,797,168. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Stock Performance

MA opened at $521.63 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $504.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $471.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market cap of $478.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.46, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.10. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1-year low of $398.26 and a 1-year high of $534.03.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.73 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $7.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.27 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 178.27% and a net margin of 45.26%. Mastercard’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.39 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 9th were issued a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 9th. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.51%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.97%.

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.