VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Lowers Stock Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated $MA

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al reduced its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 4.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 79,762 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 3,800 shares during the period. VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $45,369,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of MA. LGT Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Mastercard during the 2nd quarter worth $25,000. Family Legacy Financial Solutions LLC bought a new position in shares of Mastercard during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Flaharty Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Mastercard during the first quarter valued at $27,000. Evolution Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Mastercard during the second quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, IMG Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Mastercard in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Evercore ISI set a $610.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a report on Friday, December 12th. Tigress Financial increased their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $685.00 to $730.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Mastercard in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price on Mastercard from $645.00 to $654.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 31st. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Mastercard from $640.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $657.48.

Mastercard Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE:MA opened at $577.33 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $555.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $565.53. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1 year low of $465.59 and a 1 year high of $601.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $518.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.40, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The credit services provider reported $4.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.31 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.53 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 202.03% and a net margin of 45.28%.The firm’s revenue was up 16.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.89 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 15.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 9th. Stockholders 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 represents a $3.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.6%. This is an increase from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.76. Mastercard’s payout ratio is 22.25%.

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.