Board of the Pension Protection Fund Invests $895,000 in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

Board of the Pension Protection Fund bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,700 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $895,000.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI raised its holdings in Mastercard by 70.5% during the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 9,688 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $4,274,000 after buying an additional 4,005 shares during the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 37,608.0% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 337,487 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $148,886,000 after acquiring an additional 336,592 shares during the last quarter. WealthPLAN Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 5.3% during the second quarter. WealthPLAN Partners LLC now owns 11,897 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,249,000 after purchasing an additional 601 shares during the period. Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc. purchased a new position in Mastercard during the 2nd quarter valued at about $268,000. Finally, Excalibur Management Corp raised its position in Mastercard by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Excalibur Management Corp now owns 3,056 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,348,000 after purchasing an additional 191 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MA has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on Mastercard from $593.00 to $580.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $575.00 price objective (up from $565.00) on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Friday, November 15th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Mastercard from $590.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on Mastercard from $480.00 to $509.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $566.63.

Mastercard Stock Performance

MA stock opened at $508.49 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $524.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $493.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12-month low of $425.48 and a 12-month high of $537.70. The stock has a market capitalization of $466.71 billion, a PE ratio of 38.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.10.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.73 by $0.16. Mastercard had a return on equity of 178.27% and a net margin of 45.26%. The firm had revenue of $7.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.39 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. This is a boost from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Mastercard’s payout ratio is presently 23.00%.

Mastercard announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, December 17th that authorizes the company to repurchase $12.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the credit services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Mastercard Profile

Mastercard Incorporated, a technology company, provides transaction processing and other payment-related products and services in the United States and internationally. The company offers integrated products and value-added services for account holders, merchants, financial institutions, digital partners, businesses, governments, and other organizations, such as programs that enable issuers to provide consumers with credits to defer payments; payment products and solutions that allow its customers to access funds in deposit and other accounts; prepaid programs services; and commercial credit, debit, and prepaid payment products and solutions.