Mastercard (MA) Competitors

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) and Visa (NYSE:V) are both large-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, risk, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings, valuation, community ranking and media sentiment.

Do institutionals and insiders have more ownership in MA or V?

97.3% of Mastercard shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 82.2% of Visa shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Mastercard shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Visa shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Do analysts prefer MA or V?

Mastercard presently has a consensus price target of $606.11, suggesting a potential upside of 5.52%. Visa has a consensus price target of $353.96, suggesting a potential downside of 2.11%. Given Mastercard's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Mastercard is more favorable than Visa.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mastercard	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	24 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.93
Visa	0 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	22 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.83

Is MA or V a better dividend stock?

Mastercard pays an annual dividend of $3.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Visa pays an annual dividend of $2.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Mastercard pays out 21.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Visa pays out 23.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Visa has increased its dividend for 17 consecutive years. Visa is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Is MA or V more profitable?

Visa has a net margin of 54.27% compared to Mastercard's net margin of 45.71%. Mastercard's return on equity of 188.47% beat Visa's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mastercard	45.71%	188.47%	30.05%
Visa	54.27%	54.79%	22.62%

Which has more risk and volatility, MA or V?

Mastercard has a beta of 1.1, meaning that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Visa has a beta of 0.97, meaning that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the media favor MA or V?

In the previous week, Visa had 41 more articles in the media than Mastercard. MarketBeat recorded 131 mentions for Visa and 90 mentions for Mastercard. Mastercard's average media sentiment score of 1.33 beat Visa's score of 1.24 indicating that Mastercard is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Mastercard	78 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Visa	101 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	16 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has stronger earnings and valuation, MA or V?

Visa has higher revenue and earnings than Mastercard. Visa is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Mastercard, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mastercard	$28.17B	18.59	$12.87B	$13.89	41.35
Visa	$36.80B	18.25	$19.74B	$9.92	36.45

Does the MarketBeat Community favor MA or V?

Visa received 834 more outperform votes than Mastercard when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 80.40% of users gave Visa an outperform vote while only 73.12% of users gave Mastercard an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Mastercard	Outperform Votes 1553 73.12%	Underperform Votes 571 26.88%
Visa	Outperform Votes 2387 80.40%	Underperform Votes 582 19.60%

Summary

Mastercard beats Visa on 13 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.