Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) Shares Bought by Hall Laurie J Trustee

Hall Laurie J Trustee grew its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 14,737 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 135 shares during the quarter. Mastercard accounts for about 2.5% of Hall Laurie J Trustee’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Hall Laurie J Trustee’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $7,760,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd grew its position in shares of Mastercard by 2.3% in the third quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 2,805,554 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,385,383,000 after purchasing an additional 62,891 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 15.6% in the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,510,756 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,325,353,000 after purchasing an additional 337,905 shares during the period. Cardano Risk Management B.V. raised its position in shares of Mastercard by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 368,690 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $194,141,000 after buying an additional 9,611 shares during the period. Sarasin & Partners LLP raised its position in Mastercard by 4.7% in the third quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 831,942 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $410,813,000 after purchasing an additional 37,486 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Mastercard by 2.0% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,010,430 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,474,151,000 after buying an additional 100,550 shares during 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 subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Mastercard from $572.00 to $584.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. TD Cowen raised their price target on Mastercard from $533.00 to $567.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Mastercard from $590.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Macquarie raised their target price on Mastercard from $505.00 to $565.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price target on Mastercard from $515.00 to $580.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $566.63.

Mastercard Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MA opened at $525.22 on Monday. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1-year low of $427.45 and a 1-year high of $537.70. The company has a market cap of $482.06 billion, a PE ratio of 39.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $524.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $494.59.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.73 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $7.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.27 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 178.27% and a net margin of 45.26%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.39 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.46 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard declared that its board has authorized a share buyback 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 repurchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 9th will be paid a $0.76 dividend. This is an increase from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.97%.

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.