Mastercard Incorporated $MA Shares Sold by GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd

GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd reduced its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 10.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 667,616 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 73,923 shares during the quarter. Mastercard accounts for approximately 8.8% of GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd largest holding. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd owned about 0.07% of Mastercard worth $379,747,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Mastercard by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,475,807 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $44,098,695,000 after buying an additional 931,132 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Mastercard by 2.8% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,760,552 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $11,062,509,000 after acquiring an additional 542,841 shares during the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Mastercard by 55,868.1% in the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,421,148 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $7,541,880,000 after acquiring an additional 13,397,168 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Mastercard during the second quarter valued at approximately $6,725,317,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Mastercard by 25.6% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,372,404 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,580,909,000 after purchasing an additional 1,299,977 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Evercore set a $610.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a report on Friday, December 12th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $690.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $685.00 target price on Mastercard in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Mastercard from $665.00 to $678.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $669.18.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MA opened at $535.49 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $555.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $564.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $480.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.41, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52-week low of $465.59 and a 52-week high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.52. Mastercard had a return on equity of 203.92% and a net margin of 45.65%.The business had revenue of $8.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.80 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.82 earnings per share. Mastercard’s revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 9th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 9th were issued a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 9th. This is an increase from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.07%.

About Mastercard

Mastercard Incorporated is a global payments technology company that operates a network connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 200 countries and territories. The company facilitates electronic payments and transaction processing for credit, debit and prepaid card products carrying the Mastercard brand, while also providing a range of payment-related services to issuers, acquirers and merchants. Its technology and network enable authorization, clearing and settlement of payments and support a broad set of use cases including point-of-sale, e-commerce and mobile payments.

Beyond core transaction processing, Mastercard offers a suite of value-added services such as fraud and risk management, identity and authentication tools, tokenization and digital wallet support, cross-border and commercial payment solutions, and data analytics and consulting services for merchants and financial partners.