Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. Sells 500 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. cut its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 28.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,240 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 500 shares during the quarter. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $653,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MA. State Street Corp grew its position in Mastercard by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 35,288,912 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $17,425,665,000 after acquiring an additional 257,312 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 3.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,355,081 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $10,545,139,000 after purchasing an additional 700,769 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Mastercard by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,375,053 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $9,043,972,000 after buying an additional 453,773 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Mastercard by 120,665.3% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 8,041,758 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,971,020,000 after buying an additional 8,035,099 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Mastercard by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,501,814 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,800,836,000 after acquiring an additional 304,293 shares in the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on MA shares. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $575.00 price target (up previously from $565.00) on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Mastercard from $536.00 to $576.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Mastercard from $590.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $580.00 to $618.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $593.00 to $580.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $566.63.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of MA stock opened at $525.22 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $524.28 and a 200 day moving average of $494.59. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1 year low of $427.45 and a 1 year high of $537.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $482.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.10.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.73 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $7.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.27 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 178.27% and a net margin of 45.26%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.39 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. This is a boost from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Mastercard’s payout ratio is presently 19.97%.

Mastercard declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Tuesday, December 17th that allows the company to buyback $12.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit services provider to reacquire up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

About Mastercard

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.