Mastercard Inc MA
Stock research in plain language · As of Oct 04, 2026 · updated once a week, after the trading week closes
What the company does
Mastercard Inc is a mega-cap company in the Financial Services sector (Credit Services), with a market value of $483.8B, based in the USA.
It employs about 39,800 people and has been listed since May 25, 2006.
Mastercard Incorporated, a technology company, provides transaction processing and other payment-related products and services in the United States and internationally. The company offers products and services for account holders, merchants, financial institutions, digital partners, businesses, governments, and other organizations, such as programs that enable issuers to provide consumers with credits to defer payments; payment products and solutions that allow its customers to access funds in deposit and other accounts; prepaid programs services; consumer bill payment services; and commercial credit, debit, and prepaid payment products and solutions. It also provides solutions that enable businesses or governments to make payments to businesses, including Virtual Card Number, which is generated dynamically from an existing account and leverages the credit limit of the funding account; and a platform to optimize supplier payment enablement campaigns for financial institutions.
Cheap or expensive? relatively expensive
Its price-to-earnings (P/E) is 30.3 versus 18.4 for 4 direct peers — relatively expensive.
Revenue is growing 14% versus the same quarter last year.
On analysts' next-year forecasts the multiple drops to 24.2 — they expect higher earnings.
The average analyst price target is 666.71, 21% above the current price (their view, not ours).
The stock sits at 64% of its one-year range (0% = the low, 100% = the high).
The risks
- • Net debt is 2.3× shareholders' equity — high leverage.
Strengths
- ✅ Profitable — 47 of every 100 dollars of revenue stays as profit.
- ✅ Generates free cash flow — profit becomes cash in the bank.
- ✅ Buys back its shares (3% fewer shares in a year).
- ✅ Most analysts rate it buy (36 vs 0).
- ✅ Pays a dividend (0.6% a year).
What changed this week
Over the past week the stock fell 2.7% (for comparison: S&P 500 -0.2%, sector ETF XLF -2.5%).
This week's news
- SoFi’s US$25 Billion Card Portfolio Shift To Bank-Issued Stablecoin Might Change The Case For Investing In SoFi Technologies (SOFI) finance.yahoo.com · 2026-10-04
- Mastercard Expands Agentic Commerce With New Trust Services finance.yahoo.com · 2026-10-02
- Why Is Mastercard (MA) Buying Stablecoin Infrastructure And Building AI Commerce Safeguards? finance.yahoo.com · 2026-10-01
- Credit Card Stocks Q2 In Review: Capital One (NYSE:COF) Vs Peers finance.yahoo.com · 2026-10-01
- Inside OUSD’s big stablecoin launch finance.yahoo.com · 2026-10-01
- 3 Mega-Cap Stocks to Target This Week finance.yahoo.com · 2026-10-01
A description of facts from the filings and the market — not investment advice or a recommendation. "Cheap" and "expensive" are always relative to the comparison group.