Ranch Capital Advisors Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Ranch Capital Advisors Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,100 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 20 shares during the quarter. Ranch Capital Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $618,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 12.5% in the 2nd quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 5,782 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,249,000 after acquiring an additional 641 shares during the last quarter. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 5.6% in the 2nd quarter. Washington Trust Advisors Inc. now owns 339 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $191,000 after acquiring an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 11.3% in the 2nd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 2,157,283 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,212,264,000 after acquiring an additional 219,016 shares during the last quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 1,660 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $933,000 after acquiring an additional 28 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Generali Investments Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych increased its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 7.1% in the 2nd quarter. Generali Investments Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych now owns 4,500 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,529,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on MA. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $665.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Mastercard from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their price objective on Mastercard from $650.00 to $656.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Mastercard from $639.00 to $661.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $638.96.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Mastercard news, CFO J. Mehra Sachin sold 17,816 shares of the company’s 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 directly owned 31,234 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,330,922.26. This represents a 36.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.09% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Mastercard Price Performance

Shares of NYSE MA opened at $573.72 on Friday. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $465.59 and a twelve month 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 company has a market capitalization of $518.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.69, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $579.51 and a two-hundred day moving average of $565.40.

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

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

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

About Mastercard

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.