Nykredit A S Takes $169.62 Million Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Nykredit A S purchased a new position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 330,248 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $169,615,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in MA. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd grew its stake in Mastercard by 7.3% during the 1st quarter. Border to Coast Pensions Partnership Ltd now owns 139,844 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $70,089,000 after purchasing an additional 9,504 shares during the last quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 6.1% in the fourth quarter. Canada Post Corp Registered Pension Plan now owns 65,414 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $37,344,000 after purchasing an additional 3,768 shares during the last quarter. Marble Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Mastercard in the fourth quarter worth about $1,328,000. Charles Lim Capital Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the fourth quarter worth about $15,699,000. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 5.4% during the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 28,205 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $14,093,000 after purchasing an additional 1,434 shares during the period. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MA has been the topic of several research reports. Piper Sandler initiated coverage on shares of Mastercard in a report on Monday, June 29th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $597.00 price target on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Loop Capital reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $631.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $640.00 to $670.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Truist Financial raised their target price on shares of Mastercard from $554.00 to $633.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have issued a Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $666.64.

Mastercard Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of MA stock opened at $588.63 on Thursday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $554.98 and a 200 day moving average of $520.59. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96. The stock has a market cap of $515.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.74. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $464.52 and a twelve month high of $601.62.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The credit services provider reported $5.04 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.77 by $0.27. The business had revenue of $9.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.08 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 239.99% and a net margin of 46.34%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.15 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.86 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Mastercard news, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $540.00, for a total transaction of $108,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 3,322 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,793,880. This represents a 5.68% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Raj Seshadri sold 4,828 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $525.00, for a total value of $2,534,700.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 16,429 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,625,225. This trade represents a 22.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 71,357 shares of company stock valued at $40,637,262. Insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

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.