5 Best Financial Stocks to Buy Now

2. Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 151      

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) is a New York-based firm that markets payments processing services. It is ranked second on our list of 15 best financial stocks to buy now. The company’s shares have offered investors returns exceeding 26% over the course of the past year. In earnings results for the second quarter, posted on July 29, the firm reported earnings per share of $1.95, beating market estimates by $0.20. The revenue over the period was $4.5 billion, up 36% year-on-year. 

On July 15, investment advisory Evercore ISI maintained an Outperform rating on Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) stock with a price target of $439, adding the firm to the 2021 Top Payments Picks List and to the Tactical Outperform List. 

Out of the hedge funds being tracked by Insider Monkey, Virginia-based investment firm Akre Capital Management is a leading shareholder in Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) with 5.8 million shares worth more than $2 billion. 

In its Q4 2020 investor letter, Bretton Fund, an asset management firm, highlighted a few stocks and Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: MA) was one of them. Here is what the fund said:

“While consumers resumed much of their spending by summer, what and how they used their Visas and Mastercards changed. For obvious reasons, people shifted to contactless payments—one of the Covid-era changes we think is permanent—and replaced travel purchases with online shopping and food delivery. Consumers spent more on their debit cards and less on their credit cards; Visa and Mastercard make more per transaction on the latter. They also make more on cross-border transactions that come mostly from international travel, which ground to a halt early in the pandemic. Visa’s and Mastercard’s earnings per share fell by 7% and 16%, respectively, compared to their usual mid-teens growth. We’re not too worried, and we think they’ll catch up nicely in the post-vaccine world. Visa’s stock returned 17.1% and Mastercard’s 20.2%.”