Oslo Pensjonsforsikring AS Purchases New Shares in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Oslo Pensjonsforsikring AS bought a new position in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 2,737 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,368,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MA. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 820.0% in the 4th quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 46 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Strive Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mastercard during the fourth quarter valued at $27,000. Hyposwiss Advisors SA bought a new position in Mastercard in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Mastercard by 54.1% in the fourth quarter. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC now owns 57 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the period. Finally, Lifetime Wealth Management P.C. bought a new stake in Mastercard during the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Stock Down 1.8%

Mastercard stock opened at $537.33 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $505.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $515.35. Mastercard Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $464.52 and a fifty-two week high of $601.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $474.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.10, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.98.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.41 by $0.19. The firm had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.26 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.88% and a return on equity of 212.96%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.73 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.62 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be issued a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s payout ratio is 20.14%.

Key Stories Impacting Mastercard

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard and Al Etihad Payments announced the first co-badged Jaywan-Mastercard credit card, a new partnership that could expand Mastercard’s footprint in the UAE and support payment-network volume growth. Al Etihad Payments, Mastercard launch world’s first Jaywan-Mastercard co-badged credit card
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard was highlighted as a strong momentum stock, reinforcing the view that the company still has favorable fundamental and trading characteristics despite recent weakness. Here’s Why MasterCard (MA) is a Strong Momentum Stock
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard and Lithic introduced a way to make small-business loan proceeds spend-ready, a payments-adjacent product that could deepen Mastercard’s role in SMB finance workflows. Lithic and Mastercard Make SMB Loans Ready to Spend

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Mastercard news, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 200 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $540.00, for a total transaction of $108,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 3,322 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,793,880. The trade was a 5.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Raj Seshadri sold 1,977 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $529.73, for a total value of $1,047,276.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,702,934.17. The trade was a 10.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 7,005 shares of company stock valued at $3,689,976. 0.09% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on MA. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Mastercard from $590.00 to $561.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $671.00 to $664.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $679.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a report on Friday, May 1st. Dbs Bank raised Mastercard to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 27th. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $609.00 price objective on Mastercard in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $653.92.

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.