Mastercard will report earnings on Thursday before market hours, with the company heading into the release after a month in which analysts became more cautious on its outlook. The payments giant last quarter posted revenue of $8.81 billion, up 17.6% from a year earlier, and beat Wall Street’s earnings-per-share forecast.
This quarter, the market is looking for Mastercard revenue to rise 13.8% year on year, a slower pace than the 14.2% growth it delivered in the same period last year. That backdrop has not stopped analysts from trimming their estimates: over the last 30 days, revenue forecasts have mostly moved lower, even though Mastercard has a track record of beating expectations.
The earnings setup matters because Mastercard, listed on the NYSE under the ticker MA, sits at the center of a credit card group that has still drawn buyers. Shares across the segment have risen 12.8% on average over the last month, with Mastercard up 5.5% in that stretch. The stock’s average analyst price target stands at $652.69, above its current share price of $521.
Peer results have also given investors a reason to stay engaged. Bread Financial recently reported revenue growth of 4.9% and beat estimates by 2.3%, though its shares fell 6.9% after the results. Visa, another major name in the space, reported revenue growth of 17.1% and topped estimates by 4.5%, underscoring that spending and payment volumes have remained strong across the category.
The tension for Mastercard is not whether the business is still growing, but whether the company can keep surprising a market that has become less willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. For now, the setup is straightforward: a high-expectation earnings print on Thursday, a softer analyst tone, and a stock that still trades well below where many on Wall Street think it belongs.