5 Best Bitcoin Stocks to Invest in According to Hedge Funds

2. Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 139

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) is a New York-based payment processing leader with products like different types of cards, and fraud management and security solutions. While the company got into the crypto world in 2021, it launched crypto trading for financial institutions last year through Crypto Source which is made secure with Mastercard Crypto Secure.

On April 28, BMO Capital increased the price target on Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)’s shares to $442 from $414 and maintained Outperform rating. The firm made a note of the company’s quality services and incoming cross-border revenue.

On April 27, Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) announced a non-GAAP EPS of $2.80, surpassing the estimates by $0.09 in Q1. The 9.6% YoY growth in revenue that brought it to $5.7 billion was because of increased cross-border travel, growth of 35%, and rising customer spending. 

Polen Capital mentioned Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) in its first-quarter 2023 investor letter. Here is what it said:

“We trimmed Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) and Visa to equal weights of the Portfolio. Mastercard and Visa operate as a duopoly in a large and growing market. Over the last 50 years, global personal consumer expenditures (PCE) has grown 7-9% annualized. We expect 4-5% long-term PCE growth going forward. Additionally, the shift from cash to credit continues unabated, with a total credit penetration of only approximately 50% globally.3 This shift provides Visa and Mastercard with another ~4-6% of growth. When combined with PCE, this gives both companies high-single-digit to low-double-digit revenue growth opportunities. This growth estimate is before accounting for growth amplifiers like the acceleration of e-commerce, the shift from offline to online, and additional services. Both companies enjoy extremely strong network effects that provide strong competitive advantages.

We have trimmed Visa and Mastercard because their combined weight grew to over 12% of the Global Growth Portfolio because of their recent performance and to fund our increase in Amazon’s position size. We added to both positions when their prices were depressed due to cross-border transactions deteriorating materially from the pandemic. Cross-border volumes came roaring back when travel corridors reopened, and although we are several quarters removed from the cross-border nadir, Visa still grew volumes >30% in 1Q23. Total cross-border volumes are now 132% of 2019 levels. At 4.5% each, both companies remain high conviction positions for Global Growth.”