Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $20.74 Million in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System bought a new position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 41,500 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $20,736,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of MA. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,897,854 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $45,612,087,000 after acquiring an additional 466,514 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its position in Mastercard by 53,535.0% during the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 72,597,097 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $41,444,231,000 after purchasing an additional 72,461,743 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Mastercard by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,580,374 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $20,807,283,000 after purchasing an additional 997,536 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Mastercard by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,686,605 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $11,773,153,000 after purchasing an additional 349,369 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Mastercard by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 17,964,658 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $10,256,368,000 after purchasing an additional 759,584 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MA has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $605.00 target price on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of Mastercard from $670.00 to $665.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 1st. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $600.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 19th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $656.08.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MA opened at $489.15 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $497.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $519.99. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52-week low of $464.52 and a 52-week high of $601.77. The company has a market cap of $432.21 billion, a PE ratio of 28.31, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56.

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

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Mastercard’s payout ratio is currently 20.14%.

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.