Sapient Capital LLC Sells 3,476 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Sapient Capital LLC trimmed its holdings in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 6.2% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 52,544 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 3,476 shares during the period. Sapient Capital LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $26,987,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MA. World Equity Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the second quarter valued at $221,000. Professional Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Mastercard by 10.8% in the 2nd quarter. Professional Financial Advisors LLC now owns 3,703 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,902,000 after buying an additional 360 shares during the period. Focus Financial Network Inc. increased its stake in Mastercard by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 3,817 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,960,000 after buying an additional 64 shares during the period. Allied Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Mastercard during the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,000. Finally, Wealth Science Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Mastercard by 612.5% during the 2nd quarter. Wealth Science Advisors LLC now owns 1,995 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,025,000 after buying an additional 1,715 shares in the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $540.00, for a total value of $108,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 3,322 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,793,880. The trade was a 5.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Michael Miebach sold 16,628 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, July 31st. The shares were sold at an average price of $567.68, for a total value of $9,439,383.04. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 115,921 shares in the company, valued at $65,806,033.28. This trade represents a 12.54% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 62,913 shares of company stock valued at $35,769,036 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Key Mastercard News

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Stablecoin initiatives create new growth opportunities: Mastercard is partnering with Borderless.xyz to test trusted cross-border stablecoin payment flows using Mastercard Crypto Credential. It is also a founding validator for Circle’s Arc blockchain, which is scheduled to launch on September 16. These efforts could produce future transaction-processing, compliance and infrastructure revenue. Mastercard and Borderless.xyz stablecoin partnership
• Positive Sentiment: Fiserv partnership expands Mastercard’s merchant reach: Connecting Mastercard Merchant Cloud with Fiserv Commerce Hub will give enterprise merchants broader access to payment services across online, mobile and in-store channels, potentially supporting transaction growth and value-added-services revenue. Mastercard expands merchant reach through Fiserv
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts remain bullish: Wall Street maintains a favorable view of MA, with recent target increases including Cantor Fitzgerald’s $695 target. The optimism follows Mastercard’s latest earnings beat: quarterly EPS was $5.04 versus $4.77 expected, while revenue rose 14.1% year over year to $9.28 billion. Wall Street outlook for Mastercard
• Neutral Sentiment: Mastercard’s corporate-card launches in the UAE and Egypt and expanded premium travel benefits in Asia may increase regional usage, although the immediate earnings contribution is likely limited. Mastercard regional card expansion
• Negative Sentiment: Several insiders sold shares: CEO Michael Miebach sold 15,372 shares for about $8.8 million, while J. Mehra Sachin sold 3,000 shares and Linda Pistecchia Kirkpatrick sold 4,280 shares. All trades were made under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plans, which reduces their predictive value, but the cluster of sales can still pressure investor sentiment. Mastercard insider sale filings
• Negative Sentiment: Valuation and industry risks remain: With MA trading at roughly 31 times earnings, investors may be sensitive to slowing consumer spending, rising technology costs and regulatory scrutiny of payments and stablecoins.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $629.00 to $642.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $670.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. UBS Group boosted their price target on Mastercard from $640.00 to $670.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $701.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on Mastercard from $554.00 to $633.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have given a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $661.93.

Mastercard Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of Mastercard stock opened at $562.20 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 1.06. The stock has a market cap of $492.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.92, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.71. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $522.37 and its two-hundred day moving average is $515.24. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1 year low of $464.52 and a 1 year high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The credit services provider reported $5.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.77 by $0.27. Mastercard had a net margin of 46.34% and a return on equity of 239.99%. The business had revenue of $9.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.08 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $4.15 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 9th were issued a dividend of $0.87 per share. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.14%.

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.