Platinum Investment Management Ltd. Reduces Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Platinum Investment Management Ltd. trimmed its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 29.0% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,714 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,520 shares during the quarter. Platinum Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $2,087,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Mastercard in the second quarter worth about $26,000. Flaharty Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Mastercard in the first quarter worth about $27,000. Keystone Global Partners LLC acquired a new position in Mastercard in the first quarter worth about $31,000. Hughes Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Mastercard in the first quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, 1 North Wealth Services LLC acquired a new position in Mastercard in the first quarter worth about $44,000. 97.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Mastercard

In related news, Director Julius Genachowski sold 312 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $570.67, for a total transaction of $178,049.04. Following the sale, the director owned 8,469 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,833,004.23. The trade was a 3.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO J. Mehra Sachin sold 17,263 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.00, for a total value of $10,202,433.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 31,234 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,459,294. The trade was a 35.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 35,391 shares of company stock worth $20,836,514. 0.09% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on MA shares. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Mastercard from $640.00 to $612.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Wolfe Research set a $655.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a report on Monday, June 23rd. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Mastercard from $635.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $630.89.

Mastercard Stock Performance

MA opened at $574.40 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $579.73 and its 200-day moving average is $561.01. The stock has a market cap of $519.26 billion, a PE ratio of 38.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.41. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $465.59 and a twelve month high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The credit services provider reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.05 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $8.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.95 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 200.01% and a net margin of 44.93%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.50 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 9th. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. Mastercard’s payout ratio is presently 20.50%.

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.