Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. Makes New Investment in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Sterling Investment Advisors Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 431 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $242,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in MA. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the second quarter worth $26,000. Flaharty Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the first quarter worth $27,000. Keystone Global Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the first quarter worth $31,000. Hughes Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the first quarter worth $34,000. Finally, 1 North Wealth Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the first quarter worth $44,000. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Stock Up 0.5%

NYSE:MA opened at $568.04 on Tuesday. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1 year low of $465.59 and a 1 year high of $601.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.41. The stock has a market cap of $513.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.30, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $579.27 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $560.85.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The credit services provider reported $4.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.05 by $0.10. Mastercard had a return on equity of 200.01% and a net margin of 44.93%.The firm had revenue of $8.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.95 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.50 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.76 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 9th. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 20.50%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and set a $645.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on Mastercard from $640.00 to $612.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 17th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Mastercard from $660.00 to $670.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 3rd. Wolfe Research set a $655.00 price objective on Mastercard in a report on Monday, June 23rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Mastercard from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Mastercard presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $630.89.

Insider Transactions at Mastercard

In related news, Director Julius Genachowski sold 312 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $570.67, for a total transaction of $178,049.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 8,469 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,833,004.23. This trade represents a 3.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO J. Mehra Sachin sold 17,816 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $586.89, for a total value of $10,456,032.24. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 31,234 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,330,922.26. The trade was a 36.32% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 35,391 shares of company stock valued at $20,836,514. 0.09% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Mastercard 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.