J. Mehra Sachin Sells 3,266 Shares of Mastercard (NYSE:MA) Stock

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) insider Sachin Mehra sold 3,266 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $584.00, for a total transaction of $1,907,344.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 36,650 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,403,600. The trade was a 8.18% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

J. Mehra Sachin also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, August 20th, Sachin Mehra sold 1,000 shares of Mastercard stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $572.07, for a total transaction of $572,070.00.
• On Wednesday, August 19th, Sachin Mehra sold 7,444 shares of Mastercard stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $577.13, for a total transaction of $4,296,155.72.
• On Wednesday, August 5th, Sachin Mehra sold 3,000 shares of Mastercard stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $571.87, for a total transaction of $1,715,610.00.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of MA stock traded down $2.44 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $585.70. 2,155,600 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,636,441. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12 month low of $464.52 and a 12 month high of $601.62. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $554.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $520.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.96, a quick ratio of 1.06 and a current ratio of 1.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $513.08 billion, a PE ratio of 32.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.74.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The credit services provider reported $5.04 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.77 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $9.28 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.08 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 239.99% and a net margin of 46.34%.Mastercard’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $4.15 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.86 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 9th were paid a $0.87 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 9th. This represents a $3.48 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.14%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mastercard

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Mastercard by 49,444.6% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 637,466,453 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $327,402,770,000 after acquiring an additional 636,179,801 shares during the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its holdings in Mastercard by 53,535.0% in the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 72,597,097 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $41,444,231,000 after acquiring an additional 72,461,743 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Mastercard by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 36,580,374 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $20,807,283,000 after acquiring an additional 997,536 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Mastercard by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 20,686,605 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $11,773,153,000 after purchasing an additional 349,369 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 17,964,658 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $10,256,368,000 after purchasing an additional 759,584 shares during the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on MA shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Mastercard from $660.00 to $680.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $632.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Friday, July 31st. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $664.00 to $667.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Mastercard from $642.00 to $696.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Dbs Bank upgraded shares of Mastercard to a “moderate buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-five have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $666.64.

Mastercard Company 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.