Mastercard (NYSE:MA) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Mastercard (NYSE:MA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Sunday morning.

MA has been the topic of several other research reports. Evercore ISI set a $610.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Friday. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $665.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $713.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Thursday, October 30th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their target price on Mastercard from $638.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $654.81.

Mastercard Stock Down 0.6%

NYSE MA opened at $565.94 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $508.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.87. Mastercard has a 52 week low of $465.59 and a 52 week high of $601.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $553.70 and a 200-day moving average of $566.14.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.31 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $8.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.53 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 202.03% and a net margin of 45.28%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.89 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Mastercard will post 15.91 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 9th will be paid a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 9th. This is an increase from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s payout ratio is presently 19.44%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mastercard

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in MA. LGT Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard in the second quarter valued at about $25,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in Mastercard in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Flaharty Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in Mastercard in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in Mastercard in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Robbins Farley boosted its position in Mastercard by 50.0% during the 3rd quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 54 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

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.