Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for Mastercard (NYSE:MA)

Mastercard (NYSE:MA)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by stock analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $572.00 target price on the credit services provider’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price suggests a potential upside of 9.60% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $550.00 to $565.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $496.00 to $532.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $593.00 to $580.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp increased their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $515.00 to $580.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $480.00 to $509.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $549.16.

Mastercard Stock Up 0.3 %

MA opened at $521.89 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $504.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $471.04. Mastercard has a 52 week low of $395.55 and a 52 week high of $534.03. The company has a market capitalization of $479.01 billion, a PE ratio of 39.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.29, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.36.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.73 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $7.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.27 billion. Mastercard had a net margin of 45.26% and a return on equity of 178.27%. The business’s revenue was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.39 EPS. Analysts forecast that Mastercard will post 14.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mastercard

In related news, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 4,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $489.86, for a total transaction of $2,294,994.10. Following the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 15,031 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,363,085.66. The trade was a 23.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 90,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $468.80, for a total transaction of $42,192,000.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 91,649,308 shares in the company, valued at $42,965,195,590.40. The trade was a 0.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 208,370 shares of company stock valued at $97,749,218. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Mastercard

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 46.4% in the 1st quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 14,785 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $7,120,000 after acquiring an additional 4,685 shares during the period. Nwam LLC raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 20.1% in the 1st quarter. Nwam LLC now owns 1,659 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $760,000 after acquiring an additional 278 shares during the period. M&G Plc purchased a new stake in shares of Mastercard in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $137,081,000. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 1.2% in the 1st quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,334 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $2,046,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the period. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Mastercard by 17.3% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 28,679 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $13,811,000 after acquiring an additional 4,227 shares during the period. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.