Ninety One SA PTY Ltd Raises Stake in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Ninety One SA PTY Ltd increased its position in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 32.8% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 19,312 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,770 shares during the quarter. Mastercard comprises 1.6% of Ninety One SA PTY Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest position. Ninety One SA PTY Ltd’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $10,972,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,475,807 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $44,098,695,000 after acquiring an additional 931,132 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new position in Mastercard in the second quarter valued at approximately $11,421,213,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Mastercard by 2.8% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,760,552 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $11,062,509,000 after purchasing an additional 542,841 shares during the last quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Mastercard by 55,868.1% during the second quarter. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,421,148 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $7,541,880,000 after purchasing an additional 13,397,168 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $6,725,317,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on MA. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Mastercard from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Mastercard from $669.00 to $660.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley set a $665.00 target price on Mastercard and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their price target on Mastercard from $690.00 to $700.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $657.48.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of MA stock opened at $570.96 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $512.72 billion, a PE ratio of 36.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.87. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52-week low of $465.59 and a 52-week high of $601.77. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $555.96 and its 200 day moving average price is $565.57. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40.

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

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 9th. Investors of record on Friday, January 9th will be given a $0.87 dividend. This is a positive change from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 9th. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s payout ratio is 19.44%.

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.