TFB Advisors LLC Sells 794 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

TFB Advisors LLC trimmed its position in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 58.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 562 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 794 shares during the period. TFB Advisors LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $240,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Chilton Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Mastercard by 12.7% during the fourth quarter. Chilton Capital Management LLC now owns 5,308 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,264,000 after acquiring an additional 599 shares during the period. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Mastercard during the fourth quarter valued at about $205,000. Winch Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in Mastercard by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,364 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,435,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC increased its stake in Mastercard by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 18,296 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $7,804,000 after acquiring an additional 421 shares during the period. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its stake in Mastercard by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 6,296 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,697,000 after acquiring an additional 109 shares during the period. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MA has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Mastercard from $490.00 to $530.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Mastercard from $530.00 to $545.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Mastercard from $432.00 to $499.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Mastercard from $425.00 to $480.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 12th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $479.62.

Mastercard Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of MA stock traded up $3.62 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $481.57. The company had a trading volume of 2,214,542 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,325,334. The company has a 50 day moving average of $465.19 and a 200 day moving average of $426.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.06, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The firm has a market cap of $449.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 1.08. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1-year low of $355.82 and a 1-year high of $490.00.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.18 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.08 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $6.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.46 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 191.22% and a net margin of 44.60%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.65 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.35 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 9th. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 9th will be given a $0.66 dividend. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, April 8th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.32%.

Mastercard declared that its board has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, December 5th that permits the company to buyback $11.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the credit services provider to reacquire up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Mastercard

In related news, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 16,037 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $475.94, for a total value of $7,632,649.78. Following the completion of the sale, the chief marketing officer now owns 12,255 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,832,644.70. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Mastercard news, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $487.25, for a total transaction of $97,450.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 97,543,308 shares in the company, valued at approximately $47,527,976,823. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 16,037 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $475.94, for a total value of $7,632,649.78. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 12,255 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,832,644.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 50,628 shares of company stock worth $23,309,067 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Profile

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.