CHICAGO TRUST Co NA Sells 667 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

CHICAGO TRUST Co NA decreased its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 12.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 4,861 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 667 shares during the period. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $2,560,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 35,288,912 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $17,425,665,000 after acquiring an additional 257,312 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in Mastercard by 3.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,355,081 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $10,545,139,000 after acquiring an additional 700,769 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Mastercard by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 18,375,053 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $9,043,972,000 after acquiring an additional 453,773 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Mastercard by 120,665.3% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 8,041,758 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,971,020,000 after acquiring an additional 8,035,099 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Mastercard by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 7,501,814 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $3,800,836,000 after acquiring an additional 304,293 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MA has been the subject of a number of research reports. Oppenheimer decreased their target price on shares of Mastercard from $591.00 to $588.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $572.00 price target on shares of Mastercard in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Macquarie raised their price objective on Mastercard from $505.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Mastercard from $510.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Mastercard from $550.00 to $565.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $566.13.

Mastercard Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:MA traded down $1.02 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $503.65. 1,280,005 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,293,949. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market cap of $462.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.10, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.10. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $524.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $492.31. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1 year low of $425.48 and a 1 year high of $537.70.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.73 by $0.16. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.26% and a return on equity of 178.27%. The firm had revenue of $7.37 billion for 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 for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.47 EPS for the current year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be given a dividend of $0.76 per share. This is an increase from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $3.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.00%.

Mastercard announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, December 17th that permits the company to repurchase $12.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the credit services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are 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.