Highland Capital Management LLC Sells 9,570 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Highland Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 90.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 967 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 9,570 shares during the period. Highland Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $550,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in Mastercard by 42.3% in the 4th quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,824 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,594,000 after buying an additional 2,028 shares during the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Mastercard by 3.8% during the first quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 7,861 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $4,309,000 after acquiring an additional 288 shares during the last quarter. Palogic Value Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 7.5% during the first quarter. Palogic Value Management L.P. now owns 517 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $283,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares during the period. Activest Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 5.9% in the first quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 340 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $187,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. boosted its holdings in Mastercard by 2.3% in the first quarter. Pinnacle Wealth Planning Services Inc. now owns 3,590 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,968,000 after acquiring an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Mastercard Stock Up 0.0%

Mastercard stock opened at $579.61 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $520.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.06, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.87. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $555.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $565.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Mastercard Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $465.59 and a fifty-two week high of $601.77.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.31 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.53 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.28% and a return on equity of 202.03%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.89 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.87 per share. This is a boost from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on MA. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Mastercard from $690.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Citigroup raised shares of Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 8th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, December 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $669.00 to $660.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Mastercard presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $657.48.

Mastercard 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.