Cohen Klingenstein LLC Has $8.85 Million Stock Position in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

Cohen Klingenstein LLC cut its holdings in shares of Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA - Free Report) by 37.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,800 shares of the credit services provider's stock after selling 10,000 shares during the period. Cohen Klingenstein LLC's holdings in Mastercard were worth $8,846,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Mastercard by 31.1% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 37,590 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $16,583,000 after purchasing an additional 8,911 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC increased its position in shares of Mastercard by 1.9% during the second quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 6,517 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $2,875,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Mastercard by 5.3% during the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 63,616 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $28,065,000 after acquiring an additional 3,218 shares during the period. GM Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in Mastercard by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. GM Advisory Group LLC now owns 2,707 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $1,194,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its stake in Mastercard by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 4,327,168 shares of the credit services provider's stock worth $1,908,973,000 after purchasing an additional 113,238 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 97.28% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on MA shares. Oppenheimer cut their target price on Mastercard from $591.00 to $588.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Mastercard from $590.00 to $610.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of Mastercard from $533.00 to $567.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 15th. Macquarie increased their price objective on shares of Mastercard from $505.00 to $565.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Mastercard from $590.00 to $610.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. 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 company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $566.63.

Mastercard Price Performance

NYSE MA traded up $2.08 on Friday, hitting $525.22. 2,373,992 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,205,146. Mastercard Incorporated has a 52 week low of $427.45 and a 52 week high of $537.70. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $524.28 and a 200-day moving average of $494.24. 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 has a market cap of $482.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.10.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The credit services provider reported $3.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.73 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $7.37 billion during 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 for the quarter was up 12.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.39 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Mastercard Incorporated will post 14.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Mastercard Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 7th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.76 per share. This represents a $3.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. This is a positive change from Mastercard's previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Mastercard's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.97%.

Mastercard declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback 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 purchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company's board believes its stock is undervalued.

Mastercard 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.