GM Advisory Group LLC Acquires 24 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

GM Advisory Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,731 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 24 shares during the period. GM Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $1,349,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sarasin & Partners LLP increased its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 4.7% during the third quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 831,942 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $410,813,000 after purchasing an additional 37,486 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Mastercard by 4.8% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 3,031,915 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,497,160,000 after acquiring an additional 138,842 shares during the last quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. bought a new position in Mastercard in the first quarter valued at approximately $608,000. SteelPeak Wealth LLC increased its stake in Mastercard by 48.6% in the second quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 4,928 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,174,000 after acquiring an additional 1,612 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 100,550 shares during the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Mastercard Price Performance

MA stock opened at $515.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $472.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.96, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12-month low of $404.32 and a 12-month high of $534.03. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $506.36 and its 200 day simple moving average is $473.05.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.73 by $0.16. The business had revenue of $7.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.27 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.26% and a return on equity of 178.27%. Mastercard’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.39 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th were paid a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, October 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 19.97%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $550.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $590.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $510.00 to $580.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. BNP Paribas cut shares of Mastercard from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $470.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $591.00 target price on the stock. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $549.16.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mastercard

In other news, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 4,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $489.86, for a total transaction of $2,294,994.10. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 15,031 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,363,085.66. The trade was a 23.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

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.