Employees Retirement System of Texas Has $220.73 Million Stake in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Employees Retirement System of Texas grew its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 17.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 388,055 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 58,563 shares during the period. Mastercard comprises about 1.8% of Employees Retirement System of Texas’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Employees Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Mastercard were worth $220,730,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Brighton Jones LLC grew its holdings in Mastercard by 42.3% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,824 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,594,000 after buying an additional 2,028 shares in the last quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. lifted its stake in Mastercard by 8.5% during the 2nd quarter. Schnieders Capital Management LLC. now owns 2,548 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,432,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 123,526 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $69,414,000 after acquiring an additional 4,885 shares during the last quarter. Hudock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Mastercard by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Hudock Inc. now owns 905 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $509,000 after acquiring an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its stake in shares of Mastercard by 25.3% in the 2nd quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 319,247 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $177,942,000 after acquiring an additional 64,454 shares in the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. HSBC raised shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $700.00 price objective for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $685.00 to $655.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Daiwa Securities Group set a $610.00 target price on Mastercard and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Mastercard from $660.00 to $668.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $670.61.

Key Headlines Impacting Mastercard

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard launched a global Crypto Partner Program with ~85 crypto and payments firms (Binance, Circle, PayPal, Gemini, etc.), aiming to connect on?chain assets to its card network—this accelerates potential new transaction volume and positioning in digital assets. Mastercard launches crypto partner program with 85 companies to reshape global payments
• Positive Sentiment: MA introduced a Virtual C?Suite starting with an AI?powered Virtual CFO for small businesses, a product that could drive subscription or platform revenue and deepen merchant/client data monetization. Mastercard’s Virtual C-Suite Brings AI-Powered CFO to Small Firms
• Positive Sentiment: Partnership with Ericsson aims to simplify global digital money movement for telcos, fintechs and banks—helpful for scaling access in underbanked markets and expanding transaction rails. Ericsson and Mastercard Enhance Global Digital Money Movement and Accelerate Digital Financial Inclusion
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard rolled out the Mastercard Global Commerce Suite for Small Businesses in APAC to simplify cross?border payments for SMEs—could increase transaction volumes among growing merchants. Mastercard Simplifies Cross-Border Payments for Asia Pacific SMEs
• Positive Sentiment: Brazilian fintech Barte selected Mastercard’s risk intelligence via Oscilar for fraud and compliance—an example of banks/fintechs adopting Mastercard services beyond core processing. Barte Selects Oscilar’s AI-Native Risk Decisioning Platform to Transform Fraud and Compliance Operations
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary and “trending stock” pieces (Zacks/Yahoo) are driving investor attention; they summarize fundamentals and analyst expectations but contain no new company disclosures. Mastercard Incorporated (MA) Is a Trending Stock: Facts to Know Before Betting on It
• Neutral Sentiment: Comparative analysis pieces (e.g., Visa vs Mastercard) may influence flows by arguing relative valuation or growth tradeoffs, but they don’t change MA’s fundamentals directly. Visa Vs. Mastercard: Which Payment Giant Is The Better Buy Today?
• Neutral Sentiment: Customer perks like the Asia Gourmet Circle (Mastercard Collection) support card retention/brand but have limited near?term revenue impact. The Mastercard Collection: Savor the Extraordinary with Mastercard’s Asia Gourmet Circle Program
• Negative Sentiment: Opinion pieces on “agentic commerce” and AI agents highlight governance and regulatory risk as AI agents transact under delegated authority—this raises potential compliance and policy risk for payment networks enabling such flows. Europe’s Agentic commerce shift: Why AI agents are set to become economic actors

Mastercard Stock Performance

NYSE MA opened at $497.01 on Friday. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52-week low of $465.59 and a 52-week high of $601.77. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $534.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $555.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a current ratio of 1.03. The company has a market capitalization of $443.23 billion, a PE ratio of 30.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 0.83.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.80 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.82 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.07%.

Mastercard Profile

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.