Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Thursday morning, AnalystRatings.NET reports.

According to Zacks, “MasterCard’s investments to secure credit card payments, along with product-diversification and geographic-expansion initiatives augur long-term growth. Increased cross border volumes, improved pricing, and growth of processed transactions, vast global business continue to drive growth. However, the company is expected to witness top line and bottomline pressures from investments, integration of acquisitions, a challenging forex environment, and higher rebates and incentives. The company is scheduled to report fourth-quarter and full year 2015 earnings on Jan 29, 2016. The Zacks Consensus estimates earnings of $0.69 per share which translates into year over year decline of 3.80%.”

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) traded up 0.27% on Thursday, hitting $87.00. The stock had a trading volume of 4,872,670 shares. Mastercard has a one year low of $74.61 and a one year high of $101.76. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $94.26 and its 200 day moving average is $95.36. The stock has a market cap of $97.68 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.71.

Mastercard (NYSE:MA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 29th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.03. The firm earned $2.53 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.55 billion. The business’s revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.87 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Mastercard will post $3.33 earnings per share for the current year.

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 9th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 8th will be paid a $0.19 dividend. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 6th.

In other Mastercard news, major shareholder Foundation Mastercard sold 13,249 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.60, for a total value of $1,332,849.40. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 116,255,469 shares in the company, valued at $11,695,300,181.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Several hedge funds have made changes to their positions in the stock. USS Investment Management acquired a new stake in shares of Mastercard during the fourth quarter worth approximately $82,807,000. Boston Advisors boosted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 297.5% in the fourth quarter. Boston Advisors now owns 551,540 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,698,000 after buying an additional 412,783 shares during the last quarter. Vontobel Asset Management boosted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Vontobel Asset Management now owns 5,059,902 shares of the company’s stock worth $519,435,000 after buying an additional 272,511 shares during the last quarter. Sarasin & Partners boosted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Sarasin & Partners now owns 2,018,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $196,477,000 after buying an additional 41,378 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pensionfund DSM Netherlands boosted its stake in shares of Mastercard by 83.3% in the fourth quarter. Pensionfund DSM Netherlands now owns 55,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,355,000 after buying an additional 25,000 shares during the last quarter.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Macquarie reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $112.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Wednesday, December 30th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $128.00 to $133.00 in a research note on Friday, October 30th. RBC Capital reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $108.00 target price on shares of Mastercard in a research note on Monday, September 28th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Mastercard from $107.00 to $113.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Friday, November 20th. Finally, Vetr cut shares of Mastercard from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating and set a $104.12 target price on the stock. in a research note on Monday, October 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. The stock has a consensus rating of Buy and an average price target of $108.81.

MasterCard Incorporated is a technology company in the global payments industry. The Company connects consumers, financial institutions, merchants, Governments and businesses around the world, enabling them to use electronic forms of payment instead of cash and checks. The Company’s brands include MasterCard, Maestro and Cirrus. It provides offerings, such as loyalty and reward programs, information services and consulting. The Company focuses on segments, including Government programs, such as Social Security payments, unemployment benefits and others; commercial programs, such as payroll, health savings accounts, employee benefits and others, and consumer reloadable programs for individuals without formal banking relationships and non-traditional users of electronic payments. The Company provides a variety of products and solutions that support payment products that customers can offer to their cardholders.

12 Month Chart for NYSE:MA

Get a free copy of the Zacks research report on Mastercard (MA)

For more information about research offerings from Zacks Investment Research, visit Zacks.com

Receive News & Ratings for Mastercard Inc Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Mastercard Inc and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.