Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC Acquires 19 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 0.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 2,245 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the period. Richard W. Paul & Associates LLC’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $1,182,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 2.3% in the third quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 2,805,554 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,385,383,000 after acquiring an additional 62,891 shares during the last quarter. Dock Street Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Mastercard by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Dock Street Asset Management Inc. now owns 68,237 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $35,932,000 after purchasing an additional 2,931 shares during the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. lifted its holdings in Mastercard by 2.7% during the 4th quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 368,690 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $194,141,000 after buying an additional 9,611 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in Mastercard by 15.6% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,510,756 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,325,353,000 after buying an additional 337,905 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,010,430 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,474,151,000 after buying an additional 100,550 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on MA shares. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $600.00 to $660.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $584.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $654.00 to $644.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt raised shares of Mastercard from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $640.00 target price for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $606.11.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of Mastercard stock opened at $576.08 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.68, a current ratio of 1.03 and a quick ratio of 1.03. The firm has a market cap of $525.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 1.10. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $542.83 and its 200-day moving average is $517.21. Mastercard Incorporated has a one year low of $428.86 and a one year high of $576.94.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit services provider reported $3.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.71 by $0.11. Mastercard had a return on equity of 188.47% and a net margin of 45.71%. Equities analysts predict that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 9th will be given a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 21.89%.

Mastercard announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, December 17th that allows the company to buyback $12.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit services provider to repurchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.