MidFirst Bank Purchases New Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

MidFirst Bank purchased a new position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm purchased 9,384 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,357,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vulcan Value Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Vulcan Value Partners LLC now owns 466,222 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $265,233,000 after buying an additional 28,331 shares during the period. Murphy Middleton Hinkle & Parker Inc. bought a new stake in Mastercard in the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,113,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in Mastercard by 4.5% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 229,299 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $130,902,000 after purchasing an additional 9,795 shares during the last quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Mastercard by 396.3% during the fourth quarter. Global X Japan Co. Ltd. now owns 46,145 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $26,343,000 after purchasing an additional 36,848 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Marble Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Mastercard in the 4th quarter worth $1,328,000. 97.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Weiss Ratings lowered Mastercard from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Tigress Financial raised their price target on Mastercard from $730.00 to $735.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, March 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $700.00 price target on the stock. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Mastercard presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $656.04.

Mastercard Trading Up 0.2%

MA opened at $490.73 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.98, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56. The firm has a market cap of $433.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.40, a PEG ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.74. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12 month low of $464.52 and a 12 month high of $601.77. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $498.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $521.76.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.41 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.26 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 212.96% and a net margin of 45.88%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.73 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be given a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Mastercard’s payout ratio is presently 20.14%.

Mastercard Profile

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.