Mastercard (NYSE:MA) Insider Raj Seshadri Sells 1,977 Shares of Stock

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) insider Raj Seshadri sold 1,977 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $529.73, for a total value of $1,047,276.21. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at $8,702,934.17. This represents a 10.74% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Raj Seshadri also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, July 1st, Raj Seshadri sold 4,828 shares of Mastercard stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $525.00, for a total value of $2,534,700.00.

Mastercard Trading Up 3.2%

NYSE:MA traded up $16.56 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $539.00. The company had a trading volume of 3,888,904 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,881,398. Mastercard Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $464.52 and a fifty-two week high of $601.77. The business’s fifty day moving average is $496.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $519.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a current ratio of 0.98. The firm has a market cap of $476.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.73.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $4.41 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $8.40 billion during 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.73 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.14%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of MA. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Mastercard by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 79,897,854 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $45,612,087,000 after acquiring an additional 466,514 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its position in Mastercard by 53,535.0% in 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 acquiring an additional 72,461,743 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake 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 during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Mastercard by 1.7% during 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 raised its stake 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 valued at $10,256,368,000 after purchasing an additional 759,584 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, June 25th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Mastercard in a research note on Tuesday, April 21st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $605.00 price objective on the stock. Wolfe Research reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Mastercard in a report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Loop Capital reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $631.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $653.81.

Trending Headlines about Mastercard

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Analysts and Zacks-style screens say Mastercard has a strong track record of earnings beats and appears well positioned to top expectations again in its upcoming quarterly report.
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard announced a strategic partnership with VEON to expand accessible and inclusive digital financial services across Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, reinforcing long-term growth opportunities in emerging markets. VEON and Mastercard Join Forces to Accelerate Accessibility of Financial Services
• Positive Sentiment: Piper Sandler upgraded Mastercard from “overweight” to “strong-buy,” signaling improving analyst confidence in the company’s fundamentals and growth outlook.
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage comparing Mastercard with Visa and commentary on payments/stablecoin trends is broadly favorable for the sector, but it does not point to a direct near-term catalyst specific to Mastercard.

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.