MasterCard (MA) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, MasterCard (MA) closed at $351.17, marking a +1.08% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.75%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.55%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.01%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the processor of debit and credit card payments had gained 10.07% over the past month. This has outpaced the Business Services sector's gain of 4.31% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.49% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from MasterCard as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.57, up 9.36% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $5.77 billion, up 10.53% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $10.58 per share and revenue of $22.15 billion. These totals would mark changes of +25.95% and +17.32%, respectively, from last year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for MasterCard should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.03% lower. MasterCard is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, MasterCard is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 32.83. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 14.34, which means MasterCard is trading at a premium to the group.
Meanwhile, MA's PEG ratio is currently 1.78. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Financial Transaction Services stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 0.81 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Financial Transaction Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 171, which puts it in the bottom 33% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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Mastercard Incorporated (MA) : Free Stock Analysis Report
