WealthPLAN Partners LLC Decreases Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

WealthPLAN Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 28.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,551 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,434 shares during the quarter. WealthPLAN Partners LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $1,774,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in MA. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its stake in Mastercard by 53,535.0% in the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 72,597,097 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $41,444,231,000 after purchasing an additional 72,461,743 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Mastercard during the fourth quarter valued at about $6,705,708,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its stake in shares of Mastercard by 861.6% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 4,072,210 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,324,743,000 after buying an additional 3,648,748 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 2.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,580,374 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $20,807,283,000 after buying an additional 997,536 shares during the period. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp purchased a new position in shares of Mastercard in the fourth quarter worth about $497,311,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Trading Down 0.3%

MA opened at $531.35 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $499.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $518.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $469.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.75, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98. Mastercard Incorporated has a one year low of $464.52 and a one year high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.26 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.73 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.61 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be given a dividend of $0.87 per share. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. Mastercard’s payout ratio is presently 20.14%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Mastercard news, insider Raj Seshadri sold 4,828 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $525.00, for a total value of $2,534,700.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,625,225. This represents a 22.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Mastercard

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Robert W. Baird raised its price target on Mastercard to $680 from $660 and kept an outperform rating, reinforcing a bullish view on the company’s earnings power and long-term upside. Benzinga
• Positive Sentiment: TD Cowen also reiterated a buy rating on Mastercard while trimming its target slightly to $664 from $671, signaling continued confidence in the stock’s valuation and future growth. Benzinga
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard joined the coalition behind the new Open USD stablecoin, highlighting its push into digital assets and multi-rail payments, which could support longer-term growth in money movement and services revenue. Yahoo Finance
• Positive Sentiment: Recent articles continue to frame Mastercard as a beneficiary of secular fintech trends, including expansion beyond cards, stronger security-focused partnerships, and a fresh $11.7 billion buyback authorization, all of which support the investment case. Zacks
• Neutral Sentiment: Several analyst and commentary pieces argue that Mastercard remains a strong long-term compounder and potentially undervalued relative to peers like PayPal, but these are opinion-driven and not immediate catalysts. MSN
• Neutral Sentiment: One recent market update noted that Mastercard had been trading mixed versus the broader market, which helps explain why the shares have not moved sharply despite the positive news flow. Yahoo Finance

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on MA shares. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $679.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a report on Friday, May 1st. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Mastercard in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $605.00 price objective for the company. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on Mastercard from $730.00 to $735.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Susquehanna cut their target price on shares of Mastercard from $670.00 to $665.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Dbs Bank raised shares of Mastercard to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Mastercard currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $654.31.

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.