Sather Financial Group Inc Trims Stock Holdings in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

Sather Financial Group Inc reduced its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 0.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 97,612 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 95 shares during the period. Mastercard makes up approximately 3.1% of Sather Financial Group Inc’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Sather Financial Group Inc’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $48,201,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of MA. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings 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 buying an additional 8,035,099 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Mastercard during the first quarter worth about $660,652,000. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Mastercard by 145.6% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,777,468 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $784,148,000 after purchasing an additional 1,053,616 shares during the period. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Mastercard during the second quarter worth about $259,071,000. Finally, Capital World Investors increased its stake in Mastercard by 13.3% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,293,617 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,586,107,000 after purchasing an additional 387,317 shares during the period. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on MA. William Blair upgraded shares of Mastercard to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. BNP Paribas lowered shares of Mastercard from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $470.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Mastercard from $544.00 to $564.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Mastercard from $496.00 to $532.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Mastercard from $550.00 to $565.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $549.16.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CMO Venkata R. Madabhushi sold 4,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $489.86, for a total transaction of $2,294,994.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now directly owns 15,031 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,363,085.66. This represents a 23.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 90,000 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $468.80, for a total value of $42,192,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 91,649,308 shares in the company, valued at approximately $42,965,195,590.40. This trade represents a 0.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 208,370 shares of company stock valued at $97,749,218 over the last three months. 0.10% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Mastercard Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Mastercard stock opened at $521.89 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $479.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.48, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 1.10. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1 year low of $395.55 and a 1 year high of $534.03. The company’s fifty day moving average is $504.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $471.18.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.73 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $7.37 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.27 billion. Mastercard had a return on equity of 178.27% and a net margin of 45.26%. The business’s revenue was up 12.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.39 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 9th were paid a dividend of $0.66 per share. This represents a $2.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, October 9th. Mastercard’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.97%.

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.