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MasterCard (MA) Stock Dips While Market Gains: Key Facts

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MasterCard (MA - Free Report) closed at $533.10 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.17% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.72%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.3%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 1.12%.

The processor of debit and credit card payments's shares have seen an increase of 9.84% over the last month, surpassing the Business Services sector's gain of 5.48% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.9%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of MasterCard in its upcoming release. In that report, analysts expect MasterCard to post earnings of $4.75 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 14.46%. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $9.06 billion, indicating a 11.45% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

MA's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $19.61 per share and revenue of $37 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +15.29% and +12.85%, respectively.

Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for MasterCard. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-term stock moves. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.08% higher within the past month. MasterCard is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, MasterCard currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 27.5. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 11.1, which means MasterCard is trading at a premium to the group.

Investors should also note that MA has a PEG ratio of 1.68 right now. 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 0.83 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Financial Transaction Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 50, putting it in the top 21% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained 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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