Blacksheep Fund Management Ltd Buys 43,330 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Blacksheep Fund Management Ltd increased its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 97.8% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 87,650 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 43,330 shares during the quarter. Mastercard accounts for 17.7% of Blacksheep Fund Management Ltd’s portfolio, making the stock its 3rd largest position. Blacksheep Fund Management Ltd’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $43,795,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. WealthCollab LLC boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 40.0% during the first quarter. WealthCollab LLC now owns 105 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Alesco Advisors LLC An ESL Co purchased a new position in Mastercard in the first quarter valued at about $2,015,000. Acumen Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Mastercard by 1,818.2% in the first quarter. Acumen Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,050 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,524,000 after buying an additional 2,891 shares in the last quarter. CI Investments Inc. lifted its position in shares of Mastercard by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. CI Investments Inc. now owns 845,789 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $422,607,000 after acquiring an additional 18,372 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Mastercard by 16.7% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 992,696 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $496,010,000 after acquiring an additional 142,324 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $679.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Weiss Ratings cut Mastercard from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Mastercard from $671.00 to $664.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Loop Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $631.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Finally, Barclays initiated coverage on Mastercard in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $640.00 price target for the company. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Mastercard presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $653.92.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mastercard

In other news, insider Raj Seshadri sold 1,977 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.73, for a total value of $1,047,276.21. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at $8,702,934.17. This represents a 10.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $540.00, for a total value of $108,000.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 3,322 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,793,880. The trade was a 5.68% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 7,005 shares of company stock worth $3,689,976 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of MA opened at $537.33 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $505.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $515.35. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1-year low of $464.52 and a 1-year high of $601.77. The stock has a market cap of $474.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.73.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.41 by $0.19. Mastercard had a return on equity of 212.96% and a net margin of 45.88%.The firm had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.73 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.62 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be issued a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. Mastercard’s payout ratio is 20.14%.

Key Mastercard News

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard and Al Etihad Payments announced the first co-badged Jaywan-Mastercard credit card, a new partnership that could expand Mastercard’s footprint in the UAE and support payment-network volume growth. Al Etihad Payments, Mastercard launch world’s first Jaywan-Mastercard co-badged credit card
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard was highlighted as a strong momentum stock, reinforcing the view that the company still has favorable fundamental and trading characteristics despite recent weakness. Here’s Why MasterCard (MA) is a Strong Momentum Stock
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard and Lithic introduced a way to make small-business loan proceeds spend-ready, a payments-adjacent product that could deepen Mastercard’s role in SMB finance workflows. Lithic and Mastercard Make SMB Loans Ready to Spend

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.