Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, credit card giant MasterCard (MA 1.04%) has earned a respected four-star ranking.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at MasterCard and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
MasterCard facts
|
Headquarters (founded) |
Purchase, N.Y. (1966) |
|
Market Cap |
$72.4 billion |
|
Industry |
Data processing and outsourced services |
|
Trailing-12-Month Revenue |
$7.5 billion |
|
Management |
CEO Ajaypal Banga (since 2010) |
|
Return on Equity (average, past 3 years) |
40.5% |
|
Cash / Debt |
$5.0 billion / $0 |
|
Dividend Yield |
0.4% |
|
Competitors |
American Express |
Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 92% of the 3,452 members who have rated MasterCard believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward.
Just yesterday, one of those bulls, fellow Fool Simon Erickson (TMFInnovator), succinctly summed up the outperform case for our community:
Incredible business that has lots of things to like:
-Their open-loop network carries lower risk and benefits from network effects. This shields MA (and V) from other competitors entering their market.
-Global macro trend moving from cash and checks to electronic payments.
-Operating margins that have steadily improved over the past five years and are now over 50%.
-No long-term debt.
-Excellent management.
-Quadrupled their dividend in the last two years and it is still less than 10% of free-cash-flow.
I've had this company on my radar for a while, but never pulled the trigger. Until now.
