Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. Raises Stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 30.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 2,891 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 676 shares during the quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $1,524,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI increased its stake in Mastercard by 70.5% in the 2nd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 9,688 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $4,274,000 after purchasing an additional 4,005 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 37,608.0% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 337,487 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $148,886,000 after purchasing an additional 336,592 shares during the last quarter. WealthPLAN Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 5.3% in the second quarter. WealthPLAN Partners LLC now owns 11,897 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $5,249,000 after buying an additional 601 shares during the period. Luts & Greenleigh Group Inc. bought a new stake in Mastercard during the 2nd quarter valued at $268,000. Finally, Excalibur Management Corp boosted its position in Mastercard by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Excalibur Management Corp now owns 3,056 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $1,348,000 after buying an additional 191 shares during the period. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Mastercard Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE MA opened at $508.49 on Wednesday. Mastercard Incorporated has a 12 month low of $425.48 and a 12 month high of $537.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $524.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $493.23. The stock has a market cap of $466.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 1.10.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.73 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $7.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.27 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.26% and a return on equity of 178.27%. Mastercard’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.39 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 9th will be issued 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 yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Mastercard’s payout ratio is presently 23.00%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on MA shares. Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $575.00 price objective (up from $565.00) on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Friday, November 15th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Mastercard in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Barclays increased their price objective on Mastercard from $536.00 to $576.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Macquarie boosted their target price on Mastercard from $505.00 to $565.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Mastercard from $590.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Mastercard currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $566.63.

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.