Is MA a good stock to buy? We came across a bullish thesis on Mastercard Incorporated on Investomine’s Substack. In this article, we will summarize the bulls’ thesis on MA. Mastercard Incorporated’s share was trading at $517.72 as of March 9th. MA’s trailing and forward P/E were 31.34 and 26.45, respectively according to Yahoo Finance.
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Mastercard Incorporated, a technology company, provides transaction processing and other payment-related products and services in the United States and internationally. MA closed 2025 with exceptional financial performance, delivering strong revenue growth, expanding margins, and accelerating earnings across both the fourth quarter and full year. Q4 net revenue reached $8.8 billion, up 18% year-over-year (15% currency-neutral), while GAAP net income rose 22% to $4.1 billion, translating to GAAP EPS of $4.52 (+24% YoY) and adjusted EPS of $4.76 (+25% YoY).
Operating income increased 25%, with GAAP margins expanding to 55.8%, reflecting robust operating leverage despite higher expenses. Growth was driven by healthy payment volumes, with gross dollar volume up 7%, purchase volume +9%, cross-border volume +14%, and switched transactions +10%, highlighting Mastercard’s strong exposure to international commerce and premium spending.
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Value-added services emerged as a key growth engine, with revenue up 26% (22% currency-neutral) in Q4, driven by cyber and intelligence solutions, digital authentication, and pricing and analytics tools, lifting margins and reducing reliance on transaction-based revenue. For the full year, Mastercard generated $32.8 billion in net revenue (+16% YoY), GAAP net income of $15.0 billion (+16%), and adjusted EPS of $17.01 (+17%), with operating margins of 57.6% GAAP and 59.2% adjusted, confirming scalable profitability.
Strong free cash flow of $17.6 billion enabled $11.7 billion in share repurchases and $2.8 billion in dividends, with $16.7 billion still authorized for buybacks. While regulatory pressures, rising taxes, and competitive fintech disruption represent medium-term headwinds, Mastercard’s combination of secular tailwinds in electronic payments, high-margin services, disciplined capital allocation, and best-in-class operating efficiency presents a bullish case, with the company well-positioned to continue generating attractive returns for shareholders.
Previously, we covered a bullish thesis on Mastercard Incorporated (MA) by Chit Chat Stocks in February 2025, which highlighted the company’s strong volume growth, expanding cards in circulation, and durable competitive moat. MA’s stock price has depreciated by approximately 8% since our coverage, reflecting broader stock market volatility. Investomine shares a similar view but emphasizes 2025 operational performance, record revenue and earnings growth, margin expansion, and the growth of high-margin value-added services.
Mastercard Incorporated is on our list of the 40 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 150 hedge fund portfolios held MA at the end of the fourth quarter which was 136 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of MA as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MA and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
Disclosure: None.
