EP Wealth Advisors LLC Boosts Stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

EP Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 3.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,355 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $7,215,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of Mastercard by 213.2% during the 4th quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP now owns 8,456 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $3,607,000 after purchasing an additional 5,756 shares during the period. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise grew its holdings in Mastercard by 6.9% during the first quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 41,250 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $19,865,000 after acquiring an additional 2,676 shares during the period. Morningstar Investment Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 96.8% in the 4th quarter. Morningstar Investment Services LLC now owns 593,789 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $253,144,000 after purchasing an additional 292,064 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. increased its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 14.2% in the first quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 20,552 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $9,897,000 after buying an additional 2,556 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. purchased a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the first quarter valued at $608,000. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on Mastercard from $531.00 to $536.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Mastercard from $500.00 to $570.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $480.00 to $509.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Mastercard from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $470.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, KeyCorp upped their price target on Mastercard from $490.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $513.70.

Insider Activity at Mastercard

In other Mastercard news, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 4,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $493.10, for a total transaction of $2,310,173.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 17,118 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,440,885.80. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Mastercard news, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 4,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $493.10, for a total value of $2,310,173.50. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 17,118 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,440,885.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 119,000 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $468.46, for a total transaction of $55,746,740.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 92,033,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $43,113,923,465.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 340,809 shares of company stock worth $159,610,703. 0.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Mastercard Price Performance

Shares of MA stock opened at $493.80 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.14. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $471.70 and its 200-day moving average price is $461.86. The firm has a market cap of $459.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.10. Mastercard Incorporated has a fifty-two week low of $359.77 and a fifty-two week high of $501.80.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.59 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.51 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $6.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.85 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 179.78% and a net margin of 46.45%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.29 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th will be given a dividend of $0.66 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 9th. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. Mastercard’s payout ratio is currently 20.99%.

About Mastercard

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.