Stock Buyback Plan Declared by Mastercard (NYSE:MA) Board

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 17th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $12.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the credit services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Mastercard Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE MA opened at $531.01 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $487.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Mastercard has a 1 year low of $416.53 and a 1 year high of $536.75. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $518.69 and a 200 day moving average of $482.89.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.73 by $0.16. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.26% and a return on equity of 178.27%. The business had revenue of $7.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.27 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.39 EPS. Mastercard’s revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Mastercard will post 14.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be paid a $0.76 dividend. This is a positive change from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.57%. Mastercard’s payout ratio is currently 19.97%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MA has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $566.00 to $572.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $593.00 to $580.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $575.00 price objective (up from $565.00) on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Friday, November 15th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $545.00 to $575.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $540.00 to $605.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $559.28.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Mastercard news, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 4,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $489.86, for a total value of $2,294,994.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 15,031 shares in the company, valued at $7,363,085.66. This represents a 23.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Mastercard Company 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.