Should You Buy Mastercard While It's Below $530?

There aren't as many famous brands in the financial sector as in, say, consumer electronics. Finance tends to be a fairly straightforward without cool new products. There are exceptions, though, and payment card giant Mastercard (NYSE: MA) is one of the very few.Mastercard's fame comes from its ubiquity as the No. 2 payment card brand (behind leader Visa) on the planet. Millions of Americans have at least one Mastercard credit or debit card in their possession, and this monster presence makes the company powerful and important. Yet its popularity has slipped a bit recently after its share price peaked just north of $530. Let's explore whether this relative weakness makes its stock a buy now. Although Mastercard (like Visa) is often referred to as a credit card company, that isn't entirely appropriate. Yes, its branding adorns many such instruments, so many people assume it is the entity also issuing the credit packed into them. Mastercard is not, in fact, the issuer -- outside entities, typically banks, are the ones providing the credit. Mastercard is responsible for processing the transactions, and shifting the funds where they need to go.Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool