Leo Wealth LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Leo Wealth LLC boosted its position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 350.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 9,706 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,552 shares during the quarter. Leo Wealth LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $5,576,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp raised its stake in Mastercard by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,580,374 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $20,807,283,000 after acquiring an additional 997,536 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.2% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,431,340 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $45,181,341,000 after acquiring an additional 955,533 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 792.2% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 865,523 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $494,110,000 after acquiring an additional 768,514 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in shares of Mastercard by 6.5% in the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 10,347,834 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $5,885,944,000 after purchasing an additional 629,941 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Danske Bank A S purchased a new position in shares of Mastercard in the third quarter valued at $245,980,000. 97.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MA has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Sunday, March 15th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $739.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, January 29th. Evercore restated a “negative” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Wolfe Research reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Tuesday, March 17th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $664.40.

Mastercard Price Performance

Mastercard stock opened at $493.55 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $440.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.88, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.03, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $516.31 and a 200 day simple moving average of $544.30. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52 week low of $465.59 and a 52 week high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.24 by $0.52. Mastercard had a return on equity of 203.92% and a net margin of 45.65%.The firm had revenue of $8.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.80 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.82 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 9th will be paid a $0.87 dividend. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.07%.

Mastercard Company Profile

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.