First Bancorp Inc ME Sells 35 Shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

First Bancorp Inc ME cut its stake in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) by 4.9% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 674 shares of the credit services provider’s stock after selling 35 shares during the quarter. First Bancorp Inc ME’s holdings in Mastercard were worth $325,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dark Forest Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 81.0% during the third quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 1,171 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $464,000 after purchasing an additional 524 shares during the period. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its stake in Mastercard by 11.4% in the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 3,236 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $1,281,000 after buying an additional 330 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its stake in Mastercard by 29.5% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 6,396 shares of the credit services provider’s stock worth $2,532,000 after buying an additional 1,458 shares in the last quarter. Operose Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 26.7% during the third quarter. Operose Advisors LLC now owns 551 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $218,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp increased its stake in shares of Mastercard by 20.1% during the third quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 466,538 shares of the credit services provider’s stock valued at $184,707,000 after purchasing an additional 78,000 shares in the last quarter. 97.28% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Mastercard Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MA traded down $2.76 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $452.89. The company had a trading volume of 1,413,686 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,431,799. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.86. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $452.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $452.78. Mastercard Incorporated has a 1 year low of $359.77 and a 1 year high of $490.00. The stock has a market cap of $421.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.09.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The credit services provider reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.22 by $0.09. Mastercard had a net margin of 46.09% and a return on equity of 183.70%. The company had revenue of $6.35 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.34 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.80 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mastercard Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 9th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 9th will be issued a $0.66 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 9th. This represents a $2.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. Mastercard’s payout ratio is 20.99%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mastercard

In other news, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 109,000 shares of Mastercard stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.46, for a total value of $49,863,140.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 97,215,308 shares in the company, valued at $44,472,114,797.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 109,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $457.46, for a total transaction of $49,863,140.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 97,215,308 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,472,114,797.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Sandra A. Arkell sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $454.00, for a total transaction of $136,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 3,463 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,572,202. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 3,025,228 shares of company stock valued at $1,366,000,650. Corporate insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Monday, May 13th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $531.00 target price for the company. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Mastercard from $540.00 to $525.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Mastercard from $525.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 18th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $536.00 to $524.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Mastercard from $480.00 to $478.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $496.91.

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.