5 Best Warren Buffett Stock Picks for Beginners

3. Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

Percentage of Warren Buffett’s Stock Portfolio: 139

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 0.45%

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) is a multinational payment processing company that serves the public, governments, merchants, businesses, and financial institutions. The corporation provides its services in over 210 countries and territories.

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) is one of the best Warren Buffett stock picks for beginners as 19 out of 21 Wall Street analysts keep a Buy rating on it with an average price target of $458.35.

On October 26, Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) reported a non-GAAP EPS of $3.39, surpassing the estimation by $0.18 and the revenue grew 14% YoY at $6.5 billion. According to the company, its expanding payment network, payment and security solutions, and value-added services were responsible for the net revenue seeing an increase of 14%.

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) was mentioned in Baron Funds’ second quarter 2023 investor letter. Here is what it said:

“We modestly trimmed Visa Inc., Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA), and Accenture plc to manage the position sizes and raise capital to fund purchases elsewhere. These stocks remain full-sized positions and high-conviction ideas in the Fund.

Another fintech industry trend we’re seeing is a pickup in M&A activity, most notably in the payments sector. The year started with Nuvei’s $1.3 billion acquisition of Paya announced in January. In April, Network International received an initial takeover offer from a group of private equity firms, which was then topped by Brookfield Asset Management whose $2.8 billion offer was accepted by the Board in June. Following reports earlier this year of a bidding war between Visa Inc. and Mastercard Incorporated to acquire cloud-based issuer processor and core banking software provider Pismo.”