Earnings Preview: MasterCard Inc.

MasterCard (MA) is expected to report Q2 earnings before market open Thursday, July 31, with a conference call scheduled for 9:00 am ET.

Guidance

Analysts are looking for EPS of $2.02 on revenue of $1.21B. The consensus range for EPS is $1.91 to $2.23, while the consensus range for revenue is $1.15B to $1.25B, according to First Call.

Analyst Views

Several research firms have recently issued very bullish notes on MasterCard. JP Morgan predicted that MasterCard (MA) would likely report better than expected results, and it is optimistic about the credit card company's long-term fundamentals. The firm is confident that MasterCard's results will not be disappointing, given weak investor sentiment, and the firm maintained its Overweight rating. Buckingham initiated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and a $340 target. Raymond James upgraded MasterCard to an Outperform from a Market Perform and set a target of $275. The firm predicted that the company's earnings would grow 25% for the next several years. Earlier this month, Barron's included MasterCard on a list of stocks with high valuations.

MasterCard was added to the S&P 500 and the S&P 100 on July 10.