Mastercard’s (MA) Overweight Rating Reaffirmed at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler reaffirmed their overweight rating on shares of Mastercard (NYSE:MA) in a research note released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $635.00 price objective on the credit services provider’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $591.00.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. UBS Group boosted their price target on Mastercard from $590.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered Mastercard from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Macquarie increased their price target on Mastercard from $505.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $536.00 to $576.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $590.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Mastercard has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $595.64.

Mastercard Price Performance

MA opened at $555.63 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. Mastercard has a 1 year low of $428.86 and a 1 year high of $576.94. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $528.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $501.03. The stock has a market cap of $509.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.03, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 1.10.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit services provider reported $3.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.71 by $0.11. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.26% and a return on equity of 178.27%. Analysts forecast that Mastercard will post 14.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be issued a $0.76 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This is a boost from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.00%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mastercard

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in MA. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Mastercard in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $213,000. Mattson Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Mastercard in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,080,000. Abacus Planning Group Inc. acquired a new position in Mastercard in the third quarter worth $220,000. Czech National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 7.4% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 167,963 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $82,940,000 after purchasing an additional 11,513 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Unique Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 18.6% in the third quarter. Unique Wealth LLC now owns 3,406 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,682,000 after buying an additional 533 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 97.28% of the company’s stock.

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.