Whelan Financial Increases Stake in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Whelan Financial increased its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 30.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,330 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 314 shares during the period. Whelan Financial’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $748,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management increased its stake in Mastercard by 20.8% during the 2nd quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 6,523 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,665,000 after buying an additional 1,121 shares during the period. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. grew its holdings in Mastercard by 21.4% during the 2nd quarter. DHJJ Financial Advisors Ltd. now owns 827 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $465,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. Custos Family Office LLC grew its holdings in Mastercard by 29.9% during the 2nd quarter. Custos Family Office LLC now owns 535 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $301,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Atwater Malick LLC grew its holdings in Mastercard by 2.3% during the 2nd quarter. Atwater Malick LLC now owns 2,074 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,165,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Synergy Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Mastercard by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. Synergy Asset Management LLC now owns 9,930 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,580,000 after acquiring an additional 389 shares in the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 26th. TD Cowen restated a “buy” rating and issued a $645.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a report on Monday, August 11th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Mastercard from $639.00 to $661.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Friday, June 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Mastercard from $625.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $630.89.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Julius Genachowski sold 312 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $570.67, for a total transaction of $178,049.04. Following the sale, the director owned 8,469 shares in the company, valued at $4,833,004.23. This trade represents a 3.55% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO J. Mehra Sachin sold 17,263 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.00, for a total transaction of $10,202,433.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 31,234 shares in the company, valued at $18,459,294. This represents a 35.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 35,391 shares of company stock worth $20,836,514 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Price Performance

MA opened at $577.76 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $580.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $561.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.41, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.16. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1 year low of $465.59 and a 1 year high of $601.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $522.30 billion, a PE ratio of 38.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.97.

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

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 9th will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 9th. Mastercard’s payout ratio is 20.50%.

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.