Sierra Legacy Group Grows Stock Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

Sierra Legacy Group lifted its position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 27.4% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,775 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after buying an additional 597 shares during the quarter. Mastercard comprises approximately 1.2% of Sierra Legacy Group’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest holding. Sierra Legacy Group’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $1,559,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Mastercard by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 78,475,807 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $44,098,695,000 after buying an additional 931,132 shares during the last quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the second quarter worth about $11,421,213,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 4.7% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 20,096,979 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $11,015,557,000 after acquiring an additional 907,184 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Mastercard by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 19,760,552 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $11,062,509,000 after purchasing an additional 542,841 shares during the period. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Mastercard by 38.6% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 13,526,118 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $7,413,936,000 after purchasing an additional 3,765,378 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

MA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $713.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley set a $665.00 price target on Mastercard and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, October 31st. UBS Group raised their price objective on Mastercard from $690.00 to $700.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Finally, Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $638.00 to $630.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $652.50.

Mastercard Stock Down 1.7%

Shares of MA opened at $527.63 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $566.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $569.80. Mastercard Incorporated has a one year low of $465.59 and a one year high of $601.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.41, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.16. The stock has a market capitalization of $473.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.58, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.92.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.31 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.60 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.53 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 44.93% and a return on equity of 200.01%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.89 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 9th were issued a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.44%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO J. Mehra Sachin sold 17,263 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.00, for a total transaction of $10,202,433.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 31,234 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,459,294. This trade represents a 35.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.09% of the company’s stock.

Mastercard Profile

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.