5 Best Warren Buffett Stock Picks for Beginners

3. Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 146

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) is an American financial services company. It is the world’s second-largest payment-processing company and operates worldwide. Berkshire Hathaway has held Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA)’s shares since the first quarter of 2011. In Q3, the firm owned close to 4 million of the company shares, worth $1.13 billion, covering 0.38% of Berkshire’s portfolio.

In the last three months, Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) has been covered by 22 Wall Street analysts and 21 of them maintain a Buy or an Overweight rating on the company shares. Their average price target of $399.42 holds an over 15% upside from the current stock price of $346.16 at the time of writing.

On December 6, Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) increased its quarterly dividend by 16% to $0.57 per share from the previous $0.46. The company has a yield of 0.66% on December 27. On top of that, Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) announced a share buyback program of $9 billion for its Class A stocks. The company said that the new program will begin once the previous buyback program is complete. The existing buyback program was worth $8 billion and $3.9 billion worth of outstanding shares were remaining on December 1.

Here is what Stewart Asset Management had to say about Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) in its Q3 2022 investor letter:

“We invest in businesses with strong, resilient earnings growth which are less cyclical. In the pandemic recession of 2020, the aggregate earnings of the portfolios we manage did not decline year-over-year, and in fact grew, albeit modestly. Looking at the Great Recession which began at year-end 2007 and lasted to mid-year 2009 is helpful too. Our four largest current holdings in the portfolio weathered that period well. During this same period, Mastercard’s (NYSE:MA) earnings almost tripled.