Mastercard (MA) Competitors

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

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

82.2% of Visa shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 97.3% of Mastercard shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of Visa shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.1% of Mastercard shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Is V or MA 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
Visa	54.27%	54.79%	22.62%
Mastercard	45.71%	188.47%	30.05%

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in V or MA?

Visa received 836 more outperform votes than Mastercard when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 80.39% of users gave Visa an outperform vote while only 73.13% of users gave Mastercard an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Visa	Outperform Votes 2390 80.39%	Underperform Votes 583 19.61%
Mastercard	Outperform Votes 1554 73.13%	Underperform Votes 571 26.87%

Does the media refer more to V or MA?

In the previous week, Visa had 13 more articles in the media than Mastercard. MarketBeat recorded 110 mentions for Visa and 97 mentions for Mastercard. Visa's average media sentiment score of 1.39 beat Mastercard's score of 1.37 indicating that Visa is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Visa	99 Very Positive mention(s)	3 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	3 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Mastercard	82 Very Positive mention(s)	2 Positive mention(s)	9 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has better earnings and valuation, V or MA?

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
Visa	$36.80B	17.24	$19.74B	$9.92	34.43
Mastercard	$28.17B	17.35	$12.87B	$13.89	38.60

Do analysts recommend V or MA?

Visa currently has a consensus price target of $355.84, suggesting a potential upside of 4.17%. Mastercard has a consensus price target of $606.11, suggesting a potential upside of 13.05%. Given Mastercard's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Mastercard is more favorable than Visa.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Visa	0 Sell rating(s)	5 Hold rating(s)	22 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.86
Mastercard	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	24 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.93

Which has more risk and volatility, V or MA?

Visa has a beta of 0.94, indicating that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mastercard has a beta of 1.1, indicating that its stock price is 10% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Is V or MA a better dividend stock?

Visa pays an annual dividend of $2.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Mastercard pays an annual dividend of $3.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.6%. Visa pays out 23.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Mastercard pays out 21.9% 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 raised its dividend for 17 consecutive years and Mastercard has raised its dividend for 13 consecutive years. Visa is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Summary

Mastercard beats Visa on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.