MasterCard Shares Being Downgraded on Price Explosion

by Patrick Lunsford, CollectionIndustry.com

Two different investment banking advisors have downgraded shares in MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) Monday. Both Goldman Sachs and Citigroup analysts said that investors should be cautious of the credit card giant’s current price per share. But the downgrade has little to do with the actual performance of MasterCard.

MasterCard went public in late May of this year, with an IPO pricing shares at $39. Since then, the firm’s stock price has risen into the low $70s. Both Goldman and Citigroup stated that the run up in stock price was to blame for the downgrades.

Goldman cut MasterCard to “sell” stating that the price was overvalued. But in the statement, they did not recommend shorting the stock. Citigroup’s downgrade was from “buy” to “hold”, citing a 50% increase in MasterCard’s stock price in the past two months alone.