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MasterCard (MA) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

MasterCard (MA) closed the most recent trading day at $366.52, moving +0.28% from the previous trading session. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.18% gain on the day.

Heading into today, shares of the processor of debit and credit card payments had gained 0.44% over the past month, lagging the Business Services sector's gain of 3.6% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.43% in that time.

MA will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.71, up 25.74% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $4.35 billion, up 30.32% from the prior-year quarter.

MA's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $7.75 per share and revenue of $18.33 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +20.53% and +19.78%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for MA. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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.

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, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.63% lower. MA currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, MA is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 47.16. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 23.93.

Meanwhile, MA's PEG ratio is currently 2.13. 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. MA's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.32 as of yesterday's close.

The Financial Transaction Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 184, putting it in the bottom 28% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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