First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Decreases Stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. reduced its stake in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 23.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 29,354 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 8,799 shares during the period. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $15,457,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd boosted its position in shares of Mastercard by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Temasek Holdings Private Ltd now owns 2,805,554 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,385,383,000 after buying an additional 62,891 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 15.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 337,905 shares during the last quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its stake in shares of 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 valued at $194,141,000 after acquiring an additional 9,611 shares during the last quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP increased its position in Mastercard by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 831,942 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $410,813,000 after purchasing an additional 37,486 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Mastercard by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,010,430 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $2,474,151,000 after purchasing an additional 100,550 shares in the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

MA has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Mastercard from $510.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Oppenheimer dropped their price target on Mastercard from $591.00 to $588.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Barclays increased their target price on Mastercard from $536.00 to $576.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group raised their price target on Mastercard from $590.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price target on Mastercard from $572.00 to $584.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $567.29.

Mastercard Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of MA opened at $533.50 on Friday. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52-week low of $428.86 and a 52-week high of $537.70. The business’s fifty day moving average is $524.77 and its 200-day moving average is $497.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 1.29. The firm has a market cap of $489.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.36, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.10.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its 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. The firm had revenue of $7.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.27 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 178.27% and a net margin of 45.26%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.39 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 9th will be given a $0.76 dividend. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.57%. This is a positive change from Mastercard’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Mastercard’s payout ratio is presently 23.00%.

Mastercard declared that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, December 17th that allows the company to repurchase $12.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the credit services provider to repurchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

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.