SlateStone Wealth LLC Has $8.66 Million Stock Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

SlateStone Wealth LLC lowered its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 8.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,232 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 1,487 shares during the quarter. SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $8,664,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of MA. LGT Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Mastercard during the second quarter valued at $25,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in Mastercard during the 2nd quarter valued at about $29,000. IMG Wealth Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Mastercard in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Robbins Farley raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 50.0% during the third quarter. Robbins Farley now owns 54 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 18 shares during the last quarter. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC lifted its holdings in Mastercard by 45.2% in the second quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 61 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 19 shares during the period. 97.28% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on MA. Tigress Financial upped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $685.00 to $730.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Mastercard from $685.00 to $655.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $660.00 to $668.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 29th. Daiwa Capital Markets set a $610.00 price objective on shares of Mastercard and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Evercore ISI set a $610.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a report on Friday, December 12th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, sixteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Mastercard has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $669.18.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of MA opened at $548.91 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $492.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.18, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.83. Mastercard Incorporated has a twelve month low of $465.59 and a twelve month high of $601.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.03. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $555.31 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $564.32.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The credit services provider reported $4.76 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.24 by $0.52. The business had revenue of $8.81 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.80 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.65% and a return on equity of 203.92%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.82 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a dividend of $0.87 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 9th. This is a boost from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. This represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is 21.07%.

Mastercard 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.