1. Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 144
Topping our rankings of the best blockchain stocks to buy in 2022, Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) has appreciated by 1.99% over the past six months as of April 18, 2022. In 2017, the company launched its own blockchain API to facilitate secure and non-card business-to-business (B2B) payments and trade finance transactions. Then in 2019, Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) announced its collaboration with R3, a leading blockchain solutions provider, to make a blockchain-powered cross-border payments platform to facilitate faster transactions across the globe. As of 2021, Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) boasts of having filed over 89 patents for blockchain technology, with more than 280 pending blockchain applications.
Moreover, this January, Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) announced a collaboration with Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) to revolutionize NFT transactions. Individuals can now make NFT purchases on Coinbase Global, Inc. (NASDAQ:COIN) using their Mastercard credit and debit cards. Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) is making its way in the blockchain industry and exhibits massive upside potential. This April, Tigress Financial analyst Ivan Feinseth raised his price target on MasterCard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) to $472 from $460 and maintained a Strong Buy rating on the shares.
Insider Monkey found 144 hedge funds bullish on Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) as the fourth quarter of 2021 ended. These funds held collective stakes of more than $17.24 billion in the company. Of these funds, Akre Capital Management was the most prominent shareholder in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) having over 5.8 million shares of the stock. This equates to stakes of $2.1 billion in the company, which covers 11.75% of Akre Capital Management’s Q4 2021 investment portfolio.
VGI Partners, an investment management firm, published its fourth-quarter 2021 investor letter in which it mentioned Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA). Here is what the firm had to say:
“Mastercard has been a core constituent of the VGI Partners global strategy since 2009. Mastercard is a global payments processor and in an effective duopoly with Visa. The industry benefits from a strong secular trend toward electronic payments over cash and cheques and the COVID pandemic has accelerated this shift.
Mastercard’s share price increased +1% in calendar 2021 despite more than 25% earnings growth. This was due to Mastercard’s market multiple de-rating due to short-term concerns about cross-border
volumes and long-term concerns about disintermediation from fintechs such as PayPal and Square (see the chart below showing Mastercard’s EV/EBITDA multiple during 2021 de-rating from >30x to ~26x).Whilst the full recovery in cross-border travel has been delayed by the onset of Delta and Omicron, we believe there is significant pent-up demand for travel and that cross-border transaction volumes can exceed 2019 levels by 2023.
Interchange fees have long been a point of contention between the payment processors and merchants so the news that Amazon UK would no longer accept Visa credit cards rekindled fears that there would be a race to the bottom in merchant discount rates. Amazon and Visa have since come to a resolution and we think it is highly unlikely that other merchants will take a similar step. Nevertheless, we are closely monitoring the situation for further developments…” (Click here to see the full text)
You can also take a look at 10 Best Blockchain Stocks to Buy and 10 Best Cryptocurrency Startups to Watch.
