Mastercard (MA 1.33%) has made its first quarterly common stock dividend declaration of 2021. The company announced Monday that it will pay $0.44 per share on May 7 to investors of record as of April 9.
This won't make anyone particularly rich. As is typical in the payment card segment, Mastercard's dividend is a low yielder -- at the current payout, its yield is 0.5%.
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That said, the company has paid dividends reliably for many years. Since 2012, it has steadily raised its distribution once per year from $0.15 per share to the present level.
Mastercard has done better than many financial sector companies during the pandemic, as its business is supported by robust e-commerce activity -- which relies on the payment cards and other transaction types Mastercard provides. On top of that, payment card operators are continuing to gain from the War on Cash.
Not for the first time in its recent history, Mastercard posted an estimates-beating quarter last month. Although revenue and profitability were both down in absolute terms, the company remains very much in the black with an extremely high margin. Net profit was $1.8 billion on $4.1 billion of revenue.
The company also continues to benefit from complimentary acquisitions. One of its more recent buys was the $825 million acquisition of privately held fintech Finicity.
On Monday, Mastercard's stock fell by 0.5%, in contrast to the 0.7% gain of the S&P 500 index.
