Ballentine Partners LLC Buys 931 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 4.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 19,768 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 931 shares during the period. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $9,761,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. McLean Asset Management Corp increased its stake in Mastercard by 1.3% in the third quarter. McLean Asset Management Corp now owns 1,677 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $834,000 after purchasing an additional 21 shares in the last quarter. Quilter Plc raised its stake in Mastercard by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Quilter Plc now owns 801 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $353,000 after buying an additional 22 shares during the period. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 0.5% in the third quarter. Cornerstone Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,351 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $2,148,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares in the last quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc. grew its stake in Mastercard by 4.4% in the third quarter. Lafayette Investments Inc. now owns 524 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $259,000 after acquiring an additional 22 shares during the period. Finally, Atticus Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Mastercard by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Atticus Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,734 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $835,000 after purchasing an additional 23 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on MA. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Mastercard from $545.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Mastercard from $500.00 to $526.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $528.00 to $538.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $536.00 to $576.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $531.00 to $536.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eighteen have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $525.68.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of MA stock opened at $510.48 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $490.23 and its 200 day moving average is $464.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $474.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.58, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 1.10. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12 month low of $359.77 and a 12 month high of $518.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.95.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.51 by $0.08. Mastercard had a return on equity of 179.78% and a net margin of 46.45%. The firm had revenue of $6.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.85 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th will be paid a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 9th. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 20.99%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mastercard

In other news, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 4,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $493.10, for a total value of $2,310,173.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 17,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,440,885.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 4,685 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $493.10, for a total value of $2,310,173.50. Following the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 17,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,440,885.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 119,000 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $468.46, for a total value of $55,746,740.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 92,033,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $43,113,923,465.68. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 340,809 shares of company stock valued at $159,610,703 in the last quarter. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Mastercard

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.