We recently published a list of 10 Best Fundamental Stocks to Buy According to Billionaires. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) stands against other best fundamental stocks to buy according to billionaires.
As per Fitch Ratings, the US tariffs are now at levels that continue to transform the global economic outlook, meaningfully increasing the US recession risks as well as constraining the US Fed’s ability to reduce the interest rates further. The ratings agency believes that tariff hikes are expected to result in increased consumer prices and reduced corporate profits in the US. The increased prices can squeeze real wages, impacting consumer spending, with reduced profits and policy uncertainty weighing over business investments. Notably, upward pressure on goods prices due to tariffs would mean that the US Fed is likely to become more cautious when it comes to further rate cuts.
Tariffs Can Be Reduced, Says UBS
In the base case (to which UBS assigns a 50% probability), the firm anticipates tariffs to be reduced from the levels that have been announced. That being said, the process is expected to take some time. UBS anticipates that there can be a tariff-related slowdown in growth in Q2 and Q3. Even if tariffs get reduced by the end of the year, the shock and related uncertainty can result in a near-term slowdown in the broader US economy, impacting FY 2025 growth.
UBS believes that market uncertainty is expected to remain elevated, with investors focusing on potential downgrades to consensus US economic and earnings growth projections, the risk related to the tit-for-tat escalation, among others. Therefore, there can be an extended period of volatility for the broader US equities.
READ ALSO: 7 Best Stocks to Buy For Long-Term and 8 Cheap Jim Cramer Stocks to Invest In.
What Should Investors Do?
Despite the uncertainties, UBS expects that the market will end the year higher. Apart from themes of AI and Power and resources, the firm has identified longevity and companies benefiting from the megatrend as the third Transformational Innovation Opportunity. The investors can also consider using yield-generating strategies so that they can benefit from current increased levels of volatility. UBS says that since the tariffs have been announced, negotiations to soften can now start.
Furthermore, the tariff revenue can be utilised to offset the cost of extending tax cuts. Additionally, the Fed may respond to weakening growth by cutting interest rates. Morningstar believes that some of the leading mega-cap stocks rated as “wide moat” have experienced a decline this year. The firm believes that wide-moat stocks are the most attractively valued, and it sees value throughout the entire range of such stocks.
Our Methodology
To list the 10 Best Fundamental Stocks to Buy According to Billionaires, we sifted through Vanguard S&P 500 ETF and Insider Monkey’s exclusive database of billionaire stock holdings to shortlist the companies that have at least ~8% revenue and net income growth over the past 5 years. For the stocks with the same number of billionaire holdings, we have used the number of hedge fund investors as a secondary metric to rank the stocks, as of Q4 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
A woman using a payment terminal at the checkout of a store showing payment products and solutions.
Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)
5-year Revenue Growth: 10.7%
5-year Net Income Growth: 9.6%
Number of Billionaire Investors: 22
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 151
Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) is a technology company that is engaged in providing transaction processing as well as other payment-related products and services in the US and internationally. Morgan Stanley analyst James Faucette maintained a “Buy” rating on the company’s stock, setting a price objective of $644.00. The analyst’s rating is backed by factors, mainly highlighting the company’s strategic expansion in its Value-Added Services (VAS) business. The analyst noted that Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)’s recent acquisitions, including Brighterion, Recorded Future, Ekata, and RiskRecon, have strengthened the capabilities in AI, digital identity verification, threat intelligence, and cybersecurity.
These acquisitions continue to enhance Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)’s capability to offer comprehensive security solutions that remain critical in the present digital landscape. Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)’s emphasis on integrating such services throughout the transaction lifecycle places it well for future growth. Elsewhere, Tigress Financial Partners maintained a “Strong Buy” rating on the company’s stock, increasing the price objective to $685. The firm lauded its robust market position and innovations in electronic payments and cybersecurity.
Alluvium Asset Management, an asset management company, released its Q4 2024 investor letter. Here is what the fund said:
“Last quarter we wrote about the credit card companies and the Fund’s latest investment, Visa (up 15.2%). With its strong share price performance, that position had grown to be greater than 5%. As we had discussed here, we consider there to be negligible differences in investment merits when compared to Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) (up 6.8%). Whilst Visa appears a little cheaper on traditional price metrics, our view is that Mastercard has marginally higher growth prospects. Irrespective, both are deserving positions in the portfolio, and given their similarities, and the 5/10/40 rule, in order for us to maintain maximum portfolio flexibility it made sense to sell a little Visa and buy a little Mastercard, and their combined position is 6.2%.”
Overall, MA ranks 8th on our list of best fundamental stocks to buy according to billionaires. While we acknowledge the potential of MA as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some deeply undervalued AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for a deeply undervalued AI stock that is more promising than MA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
