Is it a Good Time to Invest in Mastercard (MA)?

Akre Capital Management, an investment management firm, published its “Akre Focus Fund” fourth-quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. The Akre Focus Fund’s fourth quarter 2021 performance for the Institutional share class was 6.98% compared with S&P 500 Total Return at 11.03%. Performance for the 2021 calendar year for the Institutional share class was 24.52% compared with S&P 500 Total Return at 28.71%. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

AKRE Capital Management, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) and discussed its stance on the firm. Mastercard Incorporated is a Harrison, New York-based financial services company with a $363.0 billion market capitalization. MA delivered a 2.84% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 13.03%. The stock closed at $369.52 per share on January 14, 2022.

Here is what AKRE Capital Management has to say about Mastercard Incorporated in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“The more important question is whether the tepid 2021 share price performance of Mastercard was a fair indictment of the operating performance and/or long-term worthiness of these businesses. We believe the answer is a resounding “No.” We believe all three to be among the most rapidly growing and competitively advantaged businesses the Fund owns. The fourth quarter financial results for the Fund’s portfolio companies have yet to be reported, but we expect Mastercard on average, to have grown revenue and free cash flow per share in 2021 at approximately 20% and 17%, respectively. We believe the combination of strong fundamentals and weak share price performance over 2021 makes for more value and perhaps several “loaded springs” among our top holdings.”

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Our calculations show that Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) ranks 6th on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. MA was in 146 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the third quarter of 2021, compared to 156 funds in the previous quarter. Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) delivered a 7.24% return in the past 3 months.

In November 2021, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on MA in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.