Zacks Research Forecasts Stronger Earnings for Mastercard

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) – Equities research analysts at Zacks Research raised their FY2026 EPS estimates for shares of Mastercard in a report released on Thursday, November 12th. Zacks Research analyst Team now expects that the credit services provider will post earnings per share of $19.99 for the year, up from their prior forecast of $19.72. The consensus estimate for Mastercard’s current full-year earnings is $20.00 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Mastercard’s Q4 2026 earnings at $5.04 EPS, Q1 2027 earnings at $5.06 EPS, Q2 2027 earnings at $5.73 EPS, Q3 2027 earnings at $6.04 EPS, Q4 2027 earnings at $6.15 EPS, FY2027 earnings at $22.98 EPS, Q1 2028 earnings at $6.11 EPS, Q2 2028 earnings at $6.43 EPS and FY2028 earnings at $26.45 EPS.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on MA. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $701.00 price target (up from $674.00) on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Clear Str upgraded shares of Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on Mastercard from $665.00 to $740.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $665.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, October 15th. Finally, Piper Sandler boosted their target price on Mastercard from $597.00 to $710.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty-one have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $713.21.

Mastercard Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of NYSE:MA opened at $652.48 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $598.61 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $541.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.29, a quick ratio of 1.01 and a current ratio of 1.01. The company has a market capitalization of $568.43 billion, a PE ratio of 34.13, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.78. Mastercard has a 52 week low of $464.52 and a 52 week high of $681.99.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 29th. The credit services provider reported $5.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.17 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $9.81 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.66 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 46.73% and a return on equity of 260.86%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $4.38 earnings per share.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 9th. Investors of record on Friday, October 9th were issued a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 9th. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.5%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is presently 18.20%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Mastercard news, Director Julius Genachowski sold 371 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction on Friday, October 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $585.01, for a total value of $217,038.71. Following the sale, the director directly owned 8,607 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,035,181.07. The trade was a 4.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Sachin Mehra sold 7,444 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.13, for a total transaction of $4,296,155.72. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 40,916 shares in the company, valued at $23,613,851.08. This trade represents a 15.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 25,403 shares of company stock worth $15,428,736. 0.09% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Mastercard

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of MA. State Street Corp grew its stake in Mastercard by 1.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,964,305 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $18,984,867,000 after purchasing an additional 486,283 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 10.4% in the 1st quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 5,123,041 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,559,779,000 after buying an additional 480,725 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,386,119 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,418,813,000 after buying an additional 28,834 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,225,359 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,111,216,000 after buying an additional 42,871 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Mastercard by 17.8% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,666,018 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,831,763,000 after buying an additional 554,366 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

More Mastercard News

Investors following MA have been watching these news items:

• Positive Sentiment: Bernstein raised its price target on Mastercard to $764 from $730 and reiterated an “outperform” rating, implying 17.1% upside from the cited $652.48 reference price. TickerReport article
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard is expanding payment capabilities and partnerships. It completed a reported agentic travel transaction, and separately partnered with Glyde to bring virtual-card payments to Southern Africa’s travel sector—developments that could support new use cases and transaction activity. PYMNTS article Mastercard and Glyde article
• Neutral Sentiment: Mastercard’s Canadian holiday survey found shoppers are emphasizing budgeting and value. That is useful context for consumer spending, but the report does not provide evidence of a change in Mastercard’s payment volumes. Yahoo Finance article

Mastercard Company Profile

Mastercard Incorporated is a global payments technology company that operates a network connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions, businesses and governments. Its network supports electronic payments, including transactions made with Mastercard-branded credit, debit and prepaid cards, as well as digital payment methods. The company provides technology for authorizing, clearing and settling transactions. It also offers services related to cybersecurity, identity verification, data analytics, fraud prevention and payment consulting.