4-Star Stocks Poised to Pop: MasterCard
by
Jun 16th 2012 1:06PM
Updated Jun 16th 2012 1:08PM
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 (NYS: MA) has earned a respected four-star ranking.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at MasterCard's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
MasterCard facts
| Headquarters (founded) | Purchase, N.Y. (1966) |
| Market Cap | $53.0 billion |
| Industry | Data processing and outsourced services |
| Trailing-12-Month Revenue | $7.0 billion |
| Management | CEO Ajaypal Banga (since 2010) CFO Martina Hund-Mejean (since 2007) |
| Return on Equity (Average, Past 3 Years) | 43.1% |
| Cash/Debt | $5.2 billion / $0 |
| Dividend Yield | 0.3% |
| Competitors |
American Express
Discover Financial Services Visa |
Sources: S&P Capital IQ and Motley Fool CAPS.
On CAPS, 92% of the 3,242 members who have rated MasterCard believe the stock will outperform the S&P 500 going forward.
A couple of months ago, one of those Fools, Cascell, succinctly summed up the bull case for our community:
In my opinion MasterCard, and to a lesser extent Visa, are great companies with a fairly hefty stranglehold on the sharp end of e-commerce. ... The financials all seem to stack up -- increasing EPS, high margins, no long term debt, ridiculous amounts of cash on hand. ... When you add in the fact that [MasterCard] is a truly global brand and there are reasonably high barriers to entry [it's] hard to see how this company can trip up.
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At the time this article was published Fool contributor Brian Pacampara owns no position in any of the companies mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of MasterCard. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of American Express and creating a write covered strangle position in American Express. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Fool's disclosure policy always gets a perfect score.
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