Mastercard (NYSE:MA) Shares Up 0.9% – Time to Buy?

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) shares traded up 0.9% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $517.45 and last traded at $516.06. 2,456,664 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, an increase of 2% from the average session volume of 2,407,110 shares. The stock had previously closed at $511.40.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on MA. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Mastercard from $515.00 to $580.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $575.00 price target (up previously from $565.00) on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Friday, November 15th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Mastercard in a report on Monday, November 25th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $572.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Mastercard from $590.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $562.76.

Mastercard Stock Up 0.9 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $473.66 billion, a PE ratio of 39.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $523.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $491.27.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.73 by $0.16. Mastercard had a return on equity of 178.27% and a net margin of 45.26%. The company had revenue of $7.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.27 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.39 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is a boost from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.59%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.00%.

Mastercard declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 17th that allows the company to buyback $12.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit services provider to reacquire up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of MA. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Mastercard by 120,665.3% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 8,041,758 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,971,020,000 after acquiring an additional 8,035,099 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can grew its position in shares of Mastercard by 51.7% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 5,765,714 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,846,187,000 after acquiring an additional 1,965,782 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Mastercard by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,355,081 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $10,545,139,000 after acquiring an additional 700,769 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Mastercard by 2.5% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,375,053 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $9,043,972,000 after acquiring an additional 453,773 shares during the period. Finally, Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. grew its position in shares of Mastercard by 52.8% during the 3rd quarter. Montrusco Bolton Investments Inc. now owns 1,185,081 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $573,017,000 after acquiring an additional 409,334 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Company Profile

Mastercard Incorporated, a technology company, provides transaction processing and other payment-related products and services in the United States and internationally. The company offers integrated products and value-added services for account holders, merchants, financial institutions, digital partners, businesses, governments, and other organizations, such as programs that enable issuers to provide consumers with credits to defer payments; payment products and solutions that allow its customers to access funds in deposit and other accounts; prepaid programs services; and commercial credit, debit, and prepaid payment products and solutions.