ma posts
FeedPosted Nov 7th 2009 9:40AM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Cisco Systems (CSCO), Starbucks (SBUX), Ford Motor (F), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM), MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Activision Inc (ATVI), Polo Ralph Lauren'A' (RL)
Continue reading Earnings highlights: Cisco, Ford, Humana, MasterCard, Starbucks, Toyota ...
Posted Nov 4th 2009 8:20AM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, American Express (AXP), MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Visa Inc. (V)
I've said on many occasions that I prefer MasterCard (NYSE: MA) to Visa (NYSE: V). No, I don't mean the card products themselves. I mean the stocks. I believe Visa has better brand equity associated with it, and I think it possesses a little more depth and fundamental prowess. However, both of these companies operate on the same basic economic model: collect fees on transactions, and don't take on loan risk. So, both MasterCard and Visa do offer compelling long-term investment theses.
And, even though there were some negative outlooks on MasterCard's latest earnings report, which was released Tuesday, I have to say that I didn't find the situation too disturbing. Revenues increased only 2%. The top line was inhibited by currency effects, but it's not like we haven't heard that story before. More importantly, MasterCard posted adjusted income of $3.48 per share, representative of a 40% increase over the adjusted income recorded a year ago.
Continue reading Was MasterCard's Q3 good or bad?
Posted Nov 1st 2009 12:30PM by Trey Thoelcke (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, Forecasts, MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Teva Pharm Indus ADR (TEVA)
It's official: the holiday season is here, marking the beginning of the race to the end of the year. It's also time for another FOMC interest rate decision, as well as for another look at the employment situation, perhaps the most dreaded measure of the economic recovery in the U.S. This week will bring the Challenger job cut announcements for October on Wednesday, initial jobless claims for last week and the Monster Employment Index for October on Thursday, and the employment numbers for October on Friday.
The earnings season rolls on this week as well, and analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are expecting good showings from the reports of Boston Beer Company Inc. (NYSE: SAM), DirecTV Group Inc. (NASDAQ: DTV), Sara Lee Corp. (NYSE: SLE), Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX), and Whole Foods Market Inc. (NASDAQ: WFMI).
Continue reading The week in preview: Eye on MasterCard, Prudential, Coinstar ...
Posted Oct 14th 2009 5:40PM by Tom Taulli (RSS feed)
Filed under: Private equity

To say Bruce Wasserstein was "smart" is a big understatement. He was supersmart. He graduated from high school at 16 and got an MBA and JD from Harvard by 23. By the mid 1970s, he was a big-time M&A lawyer at Swaine & Moore and then became an investment banker at First Boston. From there, he revolutionized the M&A business, as he was a dealmaker in some of the decade's marquee deals. He always seemed to be in perpetual motion, structuring one complex deal after another.
Unfortunately, after falling ill recently from a heart condition, he died today. He was 61. This is according to a report in the
Wall Street Journal [a paid publication].
Continue reading M&A legend, Bruce Wasserstein, dies
Posted Oct 4th 2009 10:00AM by Jim Woods (RSS feed)
Filed under: MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Stocks to Buy
I'd venture a guess that you have at least one, if not multiple, MasterCard (NYSE: MA) credit cards in your wallet right now.
In addition to its credit card division, the company provides transaction processing services to its customers that support its credit, deposit access, electronic cash, and automated teller machine payment card programs. The goal of the company is an ambitious one: to put the use of cash out of business.
The stock has certainly been on a tear since its 2006 debut, rising to over $300 per share near the midway point of 2008. Yes, the recession and accompanying customer spending pullback took its toll on MasterCard in late-2008 and early 2009, but despite the tough economic environment, MA shares are up over 50% year to date.
Continue reading Real bargain stock #7: MasterCard (MA)
Posted Sep 29th 2009 11:20AM by Eric Buscemi (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst reports, Analyst upgrades and downgrades, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Coca-Cola (KO), Analyst initiations
Analyst upgrades:
- FBR Capital upgraded U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) and New York Community Bancorp (NYSE: NYB) to Market Perform from Underperform to reflect a new valuation framework. The firm raised its target on U.S. Bancorp to $21 from $14 and on New York Community Bancorp to $10 from $9.
- Stephens upgraded Insulet (NASDAQ: PODD) to Overweight from Equal Weight to reflect the company's top-line growth prospects and reasonable expectations. The firm raised its target on shares to $14 from $8.
- Baird upgraded Athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN) to Outperform from Neutral and raised its target to $46 from $37 based on expectations for revenue and gross margin expansion, and relative valuation.
- Broadcom (NASDAQ: BRCM) was upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays.
- Phillips-Van Heusen (NYSE: PVH) was upgraded to Buy from Neutral at BofA/Merrill.
- Reliant Energy (NYSE: RRI) was upgraded to Conviction Buy from Neutral at Goldman.
Continue reading Analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations: AZN, HPQ, KO, MA, SCHW, USB ...
Posted Sep 17th 2009 3:00PM by Steven Mallas (RSS feed)
Filed under: Earnings reports, American Express (AXP), MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Visa Inc. (V)
Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS), a credit card company that competes with Visa (NYSE: V), MasterCard (NYSE: MA), and American Express (NYSE: AXP), released earnings for the third quarter on Thursday. The company put analysts to shame by posting a profit instead of a loss according to an article from Reuters.
The projection was for a loss of 12 cents per share. Discover actually made 52 cents per share of profit, once you exclude monies received from an antitrust settlement. Wow, that's what you call being way off the mark! The disparity surprised me, so I went to our very own earnings preview to see what we were reporting for an estimate. Sure enough, it stated the exact same expectation for a loss of 12 cents.
Continue reading Discover surprises analysts in Q3
Posted Sep 3rd 2009 5:00PM by Steven Halpern (RSS feed)
Filed under: Newsletters, MasterCard Inc'A' (MA), Stocks to Buy
"In this recession, consumers are spending less per purchase on their credit cards -- but that hasn't slowed down the credit card company MasterCard (NYSE: MA)," says Paul Tracy.
In his The StreetAuthority Market Advisor, he points out, "In the second quarter, MasterCard's net income grew by +26%, beating Wall Street's expectations by a significant margin." Here's his review.
"MasterCard makes its money from the fees it charges merchants and the banks that issue its cards. The issuing banks make money by charging consumers interest.
"And as we've seen, the banks can lose money when consumers default on their credit card debt. But MasterCard's fee-based business model has been relatively resilient during the downturn.
Continue reading Charged up over MasterCard
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