Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC Purchases New Shares in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

Retirement Wealth Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 219 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $110,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MA. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 31.1% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 37,590 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $16,583,000 after acquiring an additional 8,911 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 1.9% during the second quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,517 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,875,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 5.3% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 63,616 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $28,065,000 after purchasing an additional 3,218 shares during the last quarter. GM Advisory Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.4% in the second quarter. GM Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,707 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,194,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in Mastercard by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 4,327,168 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,908,973,000 after buying an additional 113,238 shares during the period. 97.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on MA. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $564.00 to $654.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $572.00 to $584.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Mastercard from $545.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on Mastercard from $580.00 to $618.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $572.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Four equities 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $566.63.

Mastercard Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of MA stock opened at $525.22 on Friday. Mastercard Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $427.45 and a fifty-two week high of $537.70. The firm has a market capitalization 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 quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.29. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $524.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $493.64.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.73 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $7.37 billion during 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.39 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 17th that authorizes the company to buyback $12.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the credit services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. 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 currently 19.97%.

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.