Mastercard Incorporated $MA Holdings Raised by Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.

Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. raised its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,641 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,124 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $15,723,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. LGT Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Mastercard during the 2nd quarter valued at $25,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard in the 2nd quarter worth $29,000. IMG Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Mastercard in the second quarter valued at $31,000. Robbins Farley boosted its stake in Mastercard by 50.0% during the third quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 54 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 18 shares in the last quarter. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC boosted its stake in Mastercard by 45.2% during the second quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 61 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on MA shares. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $665.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. HSBC raised shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $739.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Wall Street Zen raised Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James Financial cut their price objective on Mastercard from $707.00 to $631.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 29th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and two have given 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 $669.27.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of MA stock opened at $540.36 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $485.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.83. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1-year low of $465.59 and a 1-year high of $601.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $555.00 and its 200-day simple moving average is $563.93.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.52. The firm had revenue of $8.81 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.80 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 203.92% and a net margin of 45.65%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.82 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be given a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s payout ratio is presently 21.07%.

About Mastercard

Mastercard Incorporated is a global payments technology company that operates a network connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 200 countries and territories. The company facilitates electronic payments and transaction processing for credit, debit and prepaid card products carrying the Mastercard brand, while also providing a range of payment-related services to issuers, acquirers and merchants. Its technology and network enable authorization, clearing and settlement of payments and support a broad set of use cases including point-of-sale, e-commerce and mobile payments.

Beyond core transaction processing, Mastercard offers a suite of value-added services such as fraud and risk management, identity and authentication tools, tokenization and digital wallet support, cross-border and commercial payment solutions, and data analytics and consulting services for merchants and financial partners.