Mastercard stock: buy or sell?
Updated on:
May 21st, 2019
5
Mastercard Incorporated, a technology company, provides transaction processing and other payment-related products and services in the United States and internationally.
Should I buy Mastercard stock?
Even if you are a experienced or a novel trader, best trading results come from using an investing strategy that never leaves to random or subjective opinions when is the best moment to buy or sell stocks. Having a trading strategy helps to make decisions easier, quicker and with less hesitations. At Stocks2.com, we like to use very simple but trusted and powerful trend following trading strategies. Simple things usually work the best.None of our preferred buy setups matches with Mastercard stock situation right now, hence this is not a suitable entry point.
| Buy setup | Elegible |
|---|---|
| New all-time high | No |
| New 52 week high | No |
| Price crossing up 200d MA | No |
| 100d MA crossing up 200d MA | No |
Is Mastercard stock a buy?
Everyday, hundreds of stock ratings are posted by financial analysts to indicate a particular stock's attractiveness.
At Stocks2.com, we gathered 15 ratings published for MA stock in the last month. The general sentiment of these ratings is bullish for MA stock, with 14 positive ratings.| Date | Analyst / Broker | Previous rating | Current rating |
| 2019-5-6 | Barclays | Overweight | Overweight |
| 2019-5-3 | KeyCorp | n/a | Overweight |
| 2019-5-3 | KeyCorp | n/a | Overweight |
| 2019-5-2 | UBS Group | Buy | Buy |
| 2019-5-1 | Citigroup | Buy | Buy |
| 2019-4-26 | Raymond James | Outperform | Outperform |
| 2019-4-17 | Oppenheimer | Outperform | Outperform |
| 2019-4-11 | Wells Fargo & Co | n/a | Outperform |
| 2019-4-1 | Deutsche Bank | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-3-14 | Wedbush | n/a | Outperform |
| 2019-3-14 | Wedbush | Outperform | Outperform |
| 2019-2-4 | Oppenheimer | n/a | Outperform |
| 2019-2-20 | Nomura | n/a | Buy |
| 2019-1-9 | UBS Group | Neutral | Buy |
| 2019-1-8 | Bank of America | Buy | Neutral |
Mastercard stock analysis
Daily outlook
Mastercard stepped up a slightly good 0.74% and closed at $255.36.
Shares of Mastercard closed today at $255.36 and stepped up a slightly good 0.74%. On March, SMA100d and SMA200d crossed up triggering a rise of 9.62%. Since price and SMA200d lines crossed up on January, MA climbed $59.11 (30.12%). On April 30th, MA hit a new all time high, pushing higher than on April/29 tops. Check different trading setups that use ATHs as triggers.
Weekly outlook
Mastercard raised a tiny 1.11% this week.
Mastercard stock is trading in the range of its last top and last bottom. Loosing would mean breaking the current uptrend. Breakdowns under last bottom are selling point signals for some trading strategies. Not so far away is the last price record Mastercard marked late April. Late March, SMA20w and SMA40w crossed up triggering a rise of 10.81%. Since price and SMA40w lines crossed up by mid January, MA climbed $59.73 (30.53%).
Mastercard stock price history
Mastercard IPO was on May 25th, 2006 at $3.04 per share1. Since then, MA stock surged a 8,300.00%, with an average of 691.70% per year. If you had invested right after MA's IPO a $1,000 in Mastercard stock in 2006, it would worth $83,000.00 today.
1: Adjusted price after possible price splits or reverse-splits.
Mastercard stock historical price chart
MA stock reached all-time highs on April 30th with a price of $257.43.
Mastercard stock price target is $258.30
Nobody can reliably foresee how stock prices may evolve in the future. However, many stock price predictions are published every day by banks, financial institutions and independent analysts. You should not follow the analysts' MA stock price predictions in the hope that they will be met as they may be wrong and not met. For the last month we found 15 price forecasts for MA stock:| Date | Analyst / Broker | Action | Previous target | Current target | Diff |
| 2019-5-6 | Barclays | Raises Target | $261.00 | $285.00 | 9.2% |
| 2019-5-3 | KeyCorp | Reiterates | $230.00 | $265.00 | 15.2% |
| 2019-5-3 | KeyCorp | Raises Target | $230.00 | $265.00 | 15.2% |
| 2019-5-2 | UBS Group | Raises Target | $247.00 | $300.00 | 21.5% |
| 2019-5-1 | Citigroup | Raises Target | $274.00 | $288.00 | 5.1% |
| 2019-4-26 | Raymond James | Raises Target | $247.00 | $278.00 | 12.6% |
| 2019-4-17 | Oppenheimer | Raises Target | $242.00 | $259.00 | 7% |
| 2019-4-11 | Wells Fargo & Co | Reiterates | $238.00 | $270.00 | 13.4% |
| 2019-4-1 | Deutsche Bank | Reiterates | $221.00 | $267.00 | 20.8% |
| 2019-3-14 | Wedbush | Reiterates | $220.00 | $235.00 | 6.8% |
| 2019-3-14 | Wedbush | Raises Target | $220.00 | $235.00 | 6.8% |
| 2019-2-4 | Oppenheimer | Raises Target | $221.00 | $242.00 | 9.5% |
| 2019-2-20 | Nomura | Raises Target | n/a | $252.00 | - |
| 2019-1-9 | UBS Group | Upgrades | $206.00 | $226.00 | 9.7% |
| 2019-1-8 | Bank of America | Downgrades | $230.00 | $207.00 | -10% |
| (in average) | $234.80 | $258.30 | 10.0% |
Financials and fundamental analysis
Earnings date and Earnings per Share
Since last April/30, when Mastercard presented its last earnings report, it inched a tiny 3.33%. As soon as we get its posted EPS from the earnings report, we will update this review.| Quarter | Reporting date | Estimated EPS | Actual EPS | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | - | n/a | 1.09 | n/a |
| 2017-Q3 | 2017-10-31 | 1.23 | 1.34 | 8.9% |
| 2017-Q4 | 2018-02-01 | 1.12 | 1.14 | 1.8% |
| 2018-Q1 | 2018-05-02 | 1.26 | 1.5 | 19.0% |
| 2018-Q2 | 2018-07-26 | 1.53 | 1.66 | 8.5% |
| 2018-Q3 | 2018-10-30 | 1.68 | 1.78 | 6.0% |
| 2018-Q4 | 2019-01-31 | 1.53 | 1.55 | 1.3% |
| 2019-Q1 | 2019-04-30 | 1.67 | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q2 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| 2019-Q3 | - | n/a | n/a | n/a |
Annual financial results
In 2018, Mastercard annual sales boosted a dazzling 19.63% to $14,950.00 M dollars from $12,497.00 marked in 2017. When comparing 2018 vs 2017, in line, profit margin (that is, the net income divided by revenues) rose a 7.86% to 39.19%. Mastercard fiscal year ends in December, and to compare its evolution since then, we estimate annual sales and income figures by adding results from the last 4 quarters. This is called TTM (or Twelve Trailing Months). So, Mastercard TTM sales up to March 2019 were $15,259.00 and income $6,229.00 million dollars. If we compare this TTM figures with the last reported annuality, we can esteem Mastercard business evolution since December 2018: Annual turnover up to March, compared to lastest yearly report, appreciated a slightly fine 2.07%. Regarding profit margin, Mastercard stepped up 1.63% to 39.19%| Year | Sales | YoY | Income/(margin) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | $8,340 M | - | $3,120 M37.4% | - |
| 2014 | $9,473 M | 13.59% | $3,617 M38.2% | 15.93% |
| 2015 | $9,667 M | 2.05% | $3,808 M39.4% | 5.28% |
| 2016 | $10,776 M | 11.47% | $4,059 M37.7% | 6.59% |
| 2017 | $12,497 M | 15.97% | $3,915 M31.3% | -3.55% |
| 2018 | $14,950 M | 19.63% | $5,859 M39.2% | 49.66% |
| TTM | $15,259 M | 2.07% | $6,229 M40.8% | 6.32% |
Quarterly financial results
Mastercard posted $3,889.00 M in sales for 2019-Q1, a 2.15% up compared to previous quarter. Reported quarter income marked $1,862.00 M with a profit margin of 47.88%. Profit margin climbed a 24.26% compared to previous quarter when profit margin was 23.61%. When comparing turnover to same quarter last year, Mastercard sales marked a very good growth and soared a 8.63%.| Quarter | Sales1 | QoQ2 | Income1/(margin) | QoQ2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-Q2 | $3,050 M | - | $1,180 M38.7% | - |
| 2017-Q3 | $3,400 M | 11.48% | $1,430 M42.1% | 21.19% |
| 2017-Q4 | $3,312 M | -2.59% | $227 M6.9% | -84.13% |
| 2018-Q1 | $3,580 M | 8.09% | $1,492 M41.7% | 557.27% |
| 2018-Q2 | $3,665 M | 2.37% | $1,569 M42.8% | 5.16% |
| 2018-Q3 | $3,898 M | 6.36% | $1,899 M48.7% | 21.03% |
| 2018-Q4 | $3,807 M | -2.33% | $899 M23.6% | -52.66% |
| 2019-Q1 | $3,889 M | 2.15% | $1,862 M47.9% | 107.12% |
Mastercard ownership
When you are planning to invest in shares of a stock, it's worth to review its ownership structure.Management staff in all public traded companies that hold equity is required to report every transaction to the SEC. For Mastercard, 11.17% of all outstanding shares are owned by its staff.
In case of Mastercard stock, 78.00% of its shares are held by institutions (mutual funds, pension funds, big banks and other large financial institutions). Bearish positions for MA stock account 0.00%, no big difference from last month.
For a better context understanding, the following table shows ownership data compared to other related companies:
| MA | AMZN | FIS | T | TMUS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $257.9 B | $915.2 B | $38.3 B | $236.6 B | $65.9 B |
| Total shares | 1,010.0 M | 492.3 M | 323.6 M | 7,300.0 M | 854.3 M |
| Float shares | 1,000.0 M | 413.2 M | 321.5 M | 7,290.0 M | 312.1 M |
| - Institutional holdings (%) | 78.0% | 57.1% | 92.3% | 55.4% | 35.2% |
| - Insider holdings (%) | 11.2% | 16.1% | 0.6% | 0.1% | 63.7% |
| Shares in short selling | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% | 0.0% |
Mastercard summary
| Tuesday, May 21st, 2019 | |
|---|---|
| Open | $255.00 |
| Close | $255.36 |
| Day range | $253.79 - $255.95 |
| Previous close | $253.49 |
| Session gain | 0.74% |
| Average true range | $5.42 |
| 50d mov avg | $240.44 |
| 100d mov avg | $224.52 |
| 200d mov avg | $213.91 |
| Daily pattern | lt01a |
| Weekly pattern | lt06a |
Mastercard performance
Performance as an absolute value is never valid if it's not benchmarked against competitors or related stocks in the industry. For Mastercard, the benchmark is made against Amazon.com, Fidelity National Information Services, AT&T, T-Mobile US, Total System Services, Visa, Verizon Communications, WEX and Western Union.| Stock | 3m | 6m | 12m |
|---|---|---|---|
| MAMastercard | 14.51% | 40.28% | 34.32% |
| AMZNAmazon.com | 13.94% | 23.76% | 15.45% |
| FISFidelity National... | 10.85% | 15.30% | 15.76% |
| TAT&T | 5.71% | 14.00% | 6.12% |
| TMUST-Mobile US | 5.40% | 15.03% | 36.33% |
| TSSTotal System Serv... | 7.39% | 21.99% | 17.46% |
| VVisa | 12.50% | 23.73% | 25.64% |
| VZVerizon Communica... | 5.61% | 3.59% | 28.04% |
| WEX | 16.44% | 35.29% | 15.46% |
| WUWestern Union | 10.03% | 7.42% | 1.04% |
Mastercard competitors
One check before trading any stock is to review a list of its competitors, in this case for Mastercard. We selected 9 companies as Mastercard competitors as they are in the same industry or have similar market objectives.- Amazon.com (AMZN)
- Fidelity National Information Services (FIS)
- AT&T (T)
- T-Mobile US (TMUS)
- Total System Services (TSS)
- Visa (V)
- Verizon Communications (VZ)
- WEX (WEX)
- Western Union (WU)
Latest Mastercard stock news
- Seeking AlphaMastercard: Top Quality And Reasonable ValuationMay 18, 2019
- Seeking AlphaVisa Vs Mastercard: Who Wins?May 17, 2019
- Seeking AlphaMastercard: Defensively Buy The Unbroken OutperformerMay 12, 2019
- InvestorPlaceTrade of the Day: MasterCard Stock Is Going ParabolicMay 1, 2019
- InvestorPlaceMastercard Earnings: MA Stock Pops on Q1 BeatApril 30, 2019