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

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MasterCard (MA - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $235.97, moving -1.24% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.21%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.64%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.05%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the processor of debit and credit card payments had gained 6.44% over the past month. This has outpaced the Business Services sector's gain of 5.17% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.57% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from MA as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be April 30, 2019. On that day, MA is projected to report earnings of $1.67 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 11.33%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $3.88 billion, up 8.47% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $7.56 per share and revenue of $16.78 billion, which would represent changes of +16.49% and +12.24%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for MA. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.13% higher. MA is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Looking at its valuation, MA is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 31.6. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 21.56, so we one might conclude that MA is trading at a premium comparatively.

Also, we should mention that MA has a PEG ratio of 1.9. 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 1.63 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Financial Transaction Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 99, which puts it in the top 39% 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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