Bank of America Corp DE Sells 252,961 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Bank of America Corp DE lessened its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 4.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,090,085 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 252,961 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $2,543,312,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. J. Stern & Co. LLP boosted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 53,535.0% during the 4th quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 72,597,097 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $41,444,231,000 after acquiring an additional 72,461,743 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Mastercard during the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,705,708,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 861.6% during the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 4,072,210 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $2,324,743,000 after acquiring an additional 3,648,748 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake 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 period. Finally, Cibc World Markets Corp bought a new stake in Mastercard in the 4th quarter valued at $497,311,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MA has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $561.00 to $554.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, July 24th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. TD Cowen dropped their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $671.00 to $664.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. Barclays initiated coverage on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, July 8th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $640.00 target price for the company. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Mastercard from $735.00 to $675.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $653.65.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:MA opened at $563.65 on Thursday. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12-month low of $464.52 and a 12-month high of $601.77. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $511.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $514.20. The firm has a market cap of $498.03 billion, a PE ratio of 32.62, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.73. 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 (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.41 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $8.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.26 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.88% and a return on equity of 212.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 15.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.73 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 19.61 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.87 per share. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 20.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $540.00, for a total transaction of $108,000.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 3,322 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,793,880. This represents a 5.68% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Raj Seshadri sold 4,828 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $525.00, for a total value of $2,534,700.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 16,429 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,625,225. This trade represents a 22.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 7,005 shares of company stock worth $3,689,976. Corporate insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

About Mastercard

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.