Cornerstone Planning LLC Buys New Shares in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Cornerstone Planning LLC bought a new position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 5,681 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,255,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in MA. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 0.6% in 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 purchasing an additional 466,514 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its position in Mastercard by 53,535.0% in the fourth 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 buying an additional 72,461,743 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Mastercard by 2.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,580,374 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $20,807,283,000 after buying an additional 997,536 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased 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 buying an additional 349,369 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 759,584 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $700.00 price objective on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Mastercard from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Susquehanna decreased their target price on shares of Mastercard from $670.00 to $665.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $679.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a report on Friday, May 1st. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $656.04.

Mastercard Trading Up 0.2%

Mastercard stock 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. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12 month low of $464.52 and a 12 month high of $601.77. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $498.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $521.76. The firm has a market cap of $433.60 billion, a PE ratio of 28.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.74.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its earnings results 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. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.88% and a return on equity of 212.96%. The firm had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.73 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.6 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 9th will be given a dividend of $0.87 per share. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.14%.

Mastercard Company 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.