MasterCard (MA) ended the recent trading session at $491.08, demonstrating a +1.93% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock exceeded the S&P 500, which registered a loss of 2.65% for the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 1.35%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 4.18%.
The stock of processor of debit and credit card payments has fallen by 3.83% in the past month, lagging the Business Services sector's loss of 0.53% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.47%.
The upcoming earnings release of MasterCard will be of great interest to investors. On that day, MasterCard is projected to report earnings of $4.76 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 14.7%. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $9.06 billion, indicating a 11.41% upward movement from the same quarter last year.
MA's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $19.6 per share and revenue of $36.99 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +15.23% and +12.8%, respectively.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for MasterCard. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the business health and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-term stock moves. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 0.1% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. MasterCard currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Investors should also note MasterCard's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 24.58. This indicates a premium in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 9.56.
Investors should also note that MA has a PEG ratio of 1.5 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Financial Transaction Services industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 0.8 as of yesterday's close.
The Financial Transaction Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 64, this industry ranks in the top 27% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered 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
This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).