Gateway Investment Advisers LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Gateway Investment Advisers LLC lifted its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 39,825 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,719 shares during the quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $22,653,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Mastercard by 5.5% during the third quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 22,830 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $12,986,000 after purchasing an additional 1,190 shares in the last quarter. Western Financial Corp CA raised its position in shares of Mastercard by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Western Financial Corp CA now owns 2,911 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,656,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the period. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 5.6% in the 3rd quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 13,493 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $7,675,000 after buying an additional 718 shares during the period. Capital Advisors Inc. OK boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 1,497 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $851,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the period. Finally, Davis Capital Management purchased a new stake in Mastercard in the 3rd quarter worth $111,000. 97.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MA has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Mastercard in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup upgraded Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on Mastercard from $645.00 to $654.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $665.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $657.48.

Mastercard Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of NYSE MA opened at $562.93 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $505.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.99, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.86. Mastercard Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $465.59 and a fifty-two 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 business’s 50 day moving average price is $555.69 and its 200-day moving average price is $565.54.

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

Mastercard Increases Dividend

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

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.