Employees Provident Fund Board Acquires Shares of 435,500 Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Employees Provident Fund Board purchased a new position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 435,500 shares of the credit services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $248,618,000. Mastercard accounts for 1.8% of Employees Provident Fund Board’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MA. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of Mastercard by 820.0% in the fourth quarter. E Fund Management Hong Kong Co. Ltd. now owns 46 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Strive Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Mastercard in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Hyposwiss Advisors SA purchased a new position in Mastercard in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Mastercard by 250.0% during the 3rd quarter. Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC now owns 56 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Mastercard by 54.1% during the fourth quarter. Bay Harbor Wealth Management LLC now owns 57 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after acquiring an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Mastercard in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $605.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group decreased their target price on Mastercard from $650.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 1st. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Mastercard from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 2nd. Finally, Tigress Financial boosted their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $730.00 to $735.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $656.04.

Mastercard Stock Performance

NYSE MA opened at $490.73 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $433.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.98, a current ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.56. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $464.52 and a twelve month high of $601.77. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $498.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $521.76.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.41 by $0.19. Mastercard had a return on equity of 212.96% and a net margin of 45.88%.The company had revenue of $8.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.26 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.73 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 9th will be paid a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is 20.14%.

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.