Cwm LLC Cuts Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Cwm LLC cut its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 5.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 83,248 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 4,691 shares during the period. Cwm LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $47,525,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Robbins Farley lifted its stake in Mastercard by 50.0% in the third quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 54 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Tacita Capital Inc lifted its stake in Mastercard by 50.0% in the third quarter. Tacita Capital Inc now owns 57 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC lifted its stake in Mastercard by 250.0% in the third quarter. Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC now owns 56 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Dagco Inc. lifted its stake in Mastercard by 200.0% in the fourth quarter. Dagco Inc. now owns 66 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TruNorth Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Mastercard in the third quarter worth $46,000. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on MA. Tigress Financial boosted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $730.00 to $735.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Truist Financial set a $611.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Tuesday, February 10th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of Mastercard from $700.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, Raymond James Financial lowered their price target on shares of Mastercard from $707.00 to $631.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Mastercard has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $662.00.

Mastercard News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Citigroup raised its price target on MA to $675, a bullish analyst signal that can support longer?term upside and positive sentiment among growth investors. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard struck a decade?long digital transformation deal with Nedbank covering SADC, which strengthens regional issuer/merchant relationships and can drive volume growth in Africa over the next several years. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Partnerships and product launches expand addressable markets: Mastercard is enabling AI?agent payments via a tie?up with lobster.cash and has a new Canadian co?branded card with first?class travel perks; both moves broaden use cases and premium card revenue potential. Read More. | Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard and FinVolution launched the Luvit Card in the Philippines to expand digital credit access—another geographic product rollout that can add transactional volume and fee income. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa and Mastercard reached settlements in merchant litigation, removing a legal overhang; settlement terms will determine the ultimate financial impact but the resolution reduces uncertainty. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst and earnings commentary remains constructive: Zacks highlights Mastercard’s strong surprise history and positions MA as likely to beat again, which supports expectations but is not new positive news. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary (Morgan Stanley inclusion in a market?rally list) and macro data (weekly jobless claims) provide context for consumer spending trends that indirectly affect card volumes—beneficial if the macro environment holds. Read More. | Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Investor concerns over emerging technologies and related execution/competitive risks have pressured the stock, driving short?term selling despite the company’s fundamentals and growth initiatives. Read More.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MA opened at $518.87 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $462.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $510.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $540.52. 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 Incorporated has a 12 month low of $480.50 and a 12 month high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $8.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.80 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.65% and a return on equity of 203.92%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.82 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

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