Mastercard Incorporated $MA Holdings Trimmed by Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P

Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P lowered its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 4.5% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 26,531 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,238 shares during the quarter. Mastercard accounts for about 3.6% of Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P’s portfolio, making the stock its 4th largest position. Gardner Lewis Asset Management L P’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $15,091,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 42.3% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,824 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,594,000 after purchasing an additional 2,028 shares in the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. increased its holdings in Mastercard by 8.5% in the second quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 2,548 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,432,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Mastercard by 1.7% in the second quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 1,660 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $933,000 after buying an additional 28 shares in the last quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC raised its stake in Mastercard by 12.5% in the second quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 5,782 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,249,000 after buying an additional 641 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hobart Private Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Mastercard during the 2nd quarter worth about $351,000. 97.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Mastercard News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strategic cybersecurity partnership with Cloudflare positions Mastercard to sell security tools to small businesses and strengthen transaction security — a potential new revenue stream and cross?sell opportunity that supports longer?term growth. Cloudflare, Inc. (NET) and Mastercard Incorporated Announce Strategic Cybersecurity Partnership
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard is tapping telecom partners to reach ~120 million potential customers — a distribution play that can grow prepaid and mobile-first payment penetration in emerging markets. Mastercard Taps Telecoms for 120M Potential Customers
• Positive Sentiment: Local rollout wins: Mastercard enabled Google Pay for cardholders in Saudi Arabia and partnered with Grameenphone in Bangladesh — both moves expand tap?to?pay and digital wallet adoption in growth markets. Mastercard enables Google Pay for cardholders in Saudi Arabia
• Positive Sentiment: Product innovation: Mastercard highlights a move toward “agentic AI” — shifting from recommendation to automated action — which could improve fraud prevention, merchant solutions, and customer experiences over time. “We Are Moving From AI Systems That Recommend to That Act”: Mastercard on Agentic AI
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage pieces reinforce Mastercard’s long-term performance narrative (e.g., 10?year return retrospectives and momentum stock write?ups) — useful for sentiment but low immediate impact on fundamentals. $1000 Invested In Mastercard 10 Years Ago Would Be Worth This Much Today
• Neutral Sentiment: Additional reporting explains how Mastercard and Cloudflare will fight cyber threats — supports the partnership narrative but is incremental to the main announcement. How are Mastercard and Cloudfare Fighting Cyber Threats?
• Negative Sentiment: Critical analysis in the Financial Times argues the UK has become overly dependent on Mastercard, highlighting regulatory and political scrutiny risks that could translate into higher compliance costs or policy headwinds. How the UK accidentally shackled itself to Mastercard

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MA shares. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Mastercard from $685.00 to $730.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Truist Financial set a $611.00 price target on Mastercard in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Macquarie Infrastructure raised their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $660.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Mastercard from $690.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $669.27.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of MA opened at $525.94 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $551.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $561.70. The firm has a market cap of $472.30 billion, a PE ratio of 31.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.83. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12-month low of $465.59 and a 12-month high of $601.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.52. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.65% and a return on equity of 203.92%. The firm had revenue of $8.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.80 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.82 EPS. Mastercard’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be given a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. Mastercard’s payout ratio is 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.