11,424 Mastercard Incorporated $MA Shares Sold by Confluence Investment Management LLC

Confluence Investment Management LLC lessened its holdings in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 8.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 125,090 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 11,424 shares during the period. Confluence Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $68,983,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 6.6% in the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 134,601 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $69,131,000 after buying an additional 8,314 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Mastercard by 1.3% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,964,305 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $18,984,867,000 after acquiring an additional 486,283 shares in the last quarter. Altar Rock LLC grew its stake in Mastercard by 4.4% during the second quarter. Altar Rock LLC now owns 474 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $243,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares in the last quarter. Premier Financial Group bought a new stake in Mastercard in the 2nd quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Security National Bank of SO Dak purchased a new stake in Mastercard in the 2nd quarter worth $66,000. 97.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Linda Kirkpatrick sold 4,280 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, August 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $570.31, for a total value of $2,440,926.80. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 31,179 shares in the company, valued at $17,781,695.49. This trade represents a 12.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Sachin Mehra sold 3,266 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $584.00, for a total transaction of $1,907,344.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 36,650 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,403,600. The trade was a 8.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 67,818 shares of company stock worth $38,962,630. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Mastercard Trading Down 0.2%

MA traded down $1.28 on Thursday, hitting $550.19. The company had a trading volume of 1,058,689 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,538,957. The company has a market cap of $481.97 billion, a PE ratio of 30.24, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 0.74. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12-month low of $464.52 and a 12-month high of $601.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.06, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $570.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $527.99.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The credit services provider reported $5.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.77 by $0.27. The business had revenue of $9.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.08 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 239.99% and a net margin of 46.34%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $4.15 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.9 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 9th. Investors of record on Friday, October 9th will be 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 is Friday, October 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.14%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on MA. Daiwa Securities Group raised their price objective on Mastercard from $580.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Clear Str raised Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Barclays raised their price target on Mastercard from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Mastercard from $597.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Finally, Bank of America upped their price objective on Mastercard from $700.00 to $735.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirty have assigned a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Mastercard has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $680.00.

Key Mastercard News

Here are the key news stories impacting Mastercard this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard is expanding into artificial-intelligence-driven payments. Its B2B Analytics solution is designed to identify suppliers likely to accept commercial cards, potentially increasing payment volume and helping banks grow their commercial-card businesses. Mastercard advances commercial payments with AI-powered B2B analytics solution
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard’s Agent Pay and new risk-insights tools are positioning the network for “agentic commerce,” in which AI systems make purchases autonomously. This could create a new addressable market, although revenue benefits are likely longer term. Mastercard Deploys New Risk Insights to Support Agentic Payments
• Positive Sentiment: Mastercard continues to build its stablecoin and digital-payments ecosystem through partnerships involving Stripe, Visa and Coinbase, while Apple Pay’s launch in India supports Mastercard cardholders and expands digital-wallet acceptance. Stablecoin industry economics
• Neutral Sentiment: The board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.87 per share, or $3.48 annualized, with a yield of approximately 0.6%. The payout reinforces shareholder returns but is unlikely to materially affect valuation. Mastercard quarterly dividend announcement
• Negative Sentiment: Recent coverage attributed Mastercard’s weaker session to underperformance versus the broader market, but provided no major company-specific deterioration. Investors may also be weighing the stock’s premium valuation, with a price-to-earnings ratio near 30.
• Negative Sentiment: Mastercard and Visa face a $167.5 million ATM-fee settlement, which could create a modest legal and reputational overhang, although the financial impact appears limited relative to Mastercard’s size. Visa and Mastercard ATM settlement

Mastercard Company Profile

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) is a global payments technology company that operates a network connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses. The company facilitates the authorization, clearing and settlement of electronic payment transactions, while generally not issuing cards or extending credit itself. Its network supports payments made in stores, online and through mobile devices.

Mastercard’s products and services include consumer and commercial payment cards, digital payment solutions, payment processing, fraud prevention, cybersecurity, identity verification, data and analytics, and open banking tools.