MA

Firm's largest sales of the 4th quarter

Based on earnings results over the past several years, the teams at Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA) have this down to a science. Mastercard is an excellent example of a well-managed business. At the end of fiscal 2020, its ROIC was an incredible 36%.

When it comes to investing success, it's hard to beat the results of Warren Buffett. During his tenure as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B), the Oracle of Omaha has racked up an unrivaled track record. Since he took the helm of the company in 1965, its stock has generated a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) above 20%, and closed out 2019 with total returns of 2,744,062%!

Bitcoin’s price is bouncing around $50,000 giving it an aggregate value near $1tn. The digital currency is increasingly part of the modern financial landscape. The venerable BNY Mellon is now handling bitcoin, Mastercard is integrating it into its payments systems and Tesla bought $1.5bn of bitcoin for its corporate treasury.

Credit card swipe fees are going up. That's bad news for merchants but good news for investors in the card companies.

In this article we are going to list the 20 most valuable companies in the world in February 2021. Click to skip ahead and jump to the 10 Most Valuable Companies In The World in February 2021. 2020 has been the worst year for the world since the end of the WWII. Unless you’ve been […]

A pan-European payments network can be in place by 2025 to make the continent a "master of its own destiny" in a sector dominated by American duo Visa and Mastercard, the project's top official said on Wednesday. The European Payments Initiative (EPI) was launched last July and became an interim company in December with 22 banks as shareholders. European Union and European Central Bank policymakers have long wanted a "home grown" payments scheme which they could regulate directly and build "autonomy" in core financial services.

Among the executives who signed the letter included CEOs from Google, Goldman Sachs, Zillow, BlackRock, JetBlue and Visa.

Deutsche Bank and Mastercard said on Wednesday they would deepen their collaboration as the German lender aims for a greater share of the payments business. The partnership will seek to jointly develop digital payment solutions for companies, they said. McKinsey and Capgemini are projecting growth in digital payments revenues and transactions, and Deutsche Bank hopes that the segment will provide it with additional income as it further cuts costs.

Buying shares of Signature Bank is a cheap way to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, according to BofA Securities analyst Ebrahim Poonawala, prompting him to raise his price target by 15%.

Mastercard and ACI Worldwide announce first real-time payments infrastructure collaboration with Cámara de Compensación Electrónica (CCE)

Historically, relatively few stocks have been winners. But these five companies all share two market-beating characteristics.

The Osprey Bitcoin Trust (OBTC) has entered the public markets, offering investors with traditional accounts a new, cheaper way to invest in Bitcoin.

In this article, we discussed the 10 Best Value Stocks to Buy for 2021 according to Tom Russo. Click to skip ahead and see 5 Best Value Stocks to Buy for 2021. Value stocks underperformed compared to growth stocks over the past few years amid a stunning growth in technology and e-commerce companies. Still, some […]

The following is a contributed article from a content partner of Benzinga For the last 23 years, Fortune Magazine alongside people analytics firm, Great Place to Work have been publishing the 100 Best Companies to Work For list. The list is derived from what is considered America’s largest ongoing annual workforce study and more than 4.1 million employees participated in the study in 2020. The study contains 60 survey questions in which employees describe how their experiences at their workplaces help them trust their employers and to reach their full human potential. For companies investing in employee training and professional development programs, the upfront investments in time and money often yield significant returns in the long run in terms of low employee turnover, enhanced employee capacity, and hours saved from firing and re-hiring. In this post, I examine how many of America’s biggest publicly traded companies are in a constant battle to outdo one another in making their workplaces places of learning and professional development. Employees are the most important assets of any company Ensuring that employees get access to quality and consistent professional development programs could be the bedrock for having competent employees and ensuring high company morale. Hence, it is not surprising that some of the worlds biggest companies such as Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) invest hundreds of millions of dollars into the professional development of their employees. For instance, Goldman Sachs starts off professional development for its employees with a New Analyst program where undergraduate and graduate students in their final years of study can apply. Once enrolled in the program, the students can expect to gain access to resources, skills, and networks that could potentially get them started in the company. Junior employees can then go on to access more educational resources in the Goldman Sachs University program where they can “focus on building foundational professional and technical skills. Similarly, MasterCard also invests heavily in the professional development of its employees. The “MasterCard Launch” program, for instance, is designed to expose recent graduates to opportunities to enhance their professional skills, receive mentorship, and network. MasterCard also has an in-house MBA program where junior employees participate in a rotational leadership program across several business units of the company. The investments that Goldman Sachs and MasterCards make in their employee, in turn, impacts the quality of service that those employees deliver and it is not surprising to see the value of the stocks of MasterCard and Goldman Sachs rising by more than 300% and 100% respectively over the last five years as seen in the chart above. Stiff competition among some of America’s biggest companies in employee training The quest to invest heavily in employee training programs is very competitive among some of the world’s biggest companies and no company can afford rest on its laurels. Consider the case of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), which was number 1 on Fortune’s list of 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2016 and 2017. By 2018, the company had been knocked off the top 10 spots and it hasn’t managed to come back up in 2019 and 2020. Hilton Worldwide Holdings (NYSE: HLT) has maintained the Number 1 position on the list of 100 Best Companies to Work For in both 2020 and 2019; the 2020 achievement is particularly impressive when you consider the fact that the world was practically in a lockdown for much of 2020 and the hospitality business in which Hilton operates was one of the hardest-hit industries. However, 3 years ago in 2018, Hilton wasn’t anywhere near the top 10 on the list. Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE: CRM) is another example of the stiff competition among America’s companies to provide the best professional development programs to their employees. In 2020, Salesforce was Number 6 on the list of 100 Best Companies to Work For, but one year earlier in 2019, it was Number 2 on that list, and in 2018, it was Number 1 on that list. In 2018, Workday, Inc. (NASDAQ: WDAY) was Number 7 on the list of 100 Best Companies to Work For, in 2019 it had moved up to the Number 4 position before dropping to Number 5 in 2020. Similarly, Cisco Systems Inc (NASDAQ: CSCO) wasn’t anywhere near the top 10 on the list of 100 Best Companies to Work For in 2016, 2017, or 2018; however, by 2019 the company has pushed itself to number 6 on the list and by 2020, it had climbed up two more rungs to the number 4 position. However, it would be simplistic to assume that there’s any straight correlation between the share price and revenue trajectories of the companies mentioned above. The chart above merely presents the growth in their share prices and quarterly revenue for informational purposes and more research will be necessary to unearth if there’s any direct relationship between the two variables. Here’s why enterprises are committed to employee development programs Probably the first reason why many enterprises are committed to employee development programs is that the presence of such programs helps them to attract and retain great talent. However, attracting and retaining great talent is not an end in itself, the end goal is that enterprises with professional development programs be more attractive to high-performant talents who, in turn, produce provide an edge that helps the company to outpace its competitors. Secondly, employee development programs can have measurable financial cost-saving benefits for the company. To start with, effective professional development programs empower employees to become multiskilled and to apply their expertise and experience into new areas of the business. Hence, the company ends up having a pool of talent with a diversified skill set to perform a wide range of functions and to transition into different roles instead of the traditional model of hiring people for specific job functions. Lastly, employee development programs can help an organization entrench a culture of innovation. These professional development programs can ensure that the company’s workforce is abreast of emerging trends and changes in their industry. By keeping up with such changes, incumbents can lead the charge for innovation within instead of being stuck with the status quo and losing market share to more nimble and daring startups. See more from BenzingaClick here for options trades from BenzingaAmericans Enjoy Spending Their Dollars While Japanese Grip Yen Tightly© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

A 2017 rally in the price of bitcoin ended with an 80% plunge. But some believe the current price trend has staying power.

Mastercard and Island Pay Launch World’s First Central Bank Digital Currency-Linked Card

Mastercard and Jennifer Hudson launch a multi-faceted platform to support Black women-owned businesses across the U.S.

PayPal could become a "super app" as it expands into areas like Bitcoin and other digital payment services. Wall Street is impressed.

(Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin blew through another milestone, surging past $50,000 for the first time as the blistering rally in the largest cryptocurrency continues to captivate investors worldwide.The world’s largest cryptocurrency jumped as much as 4.9% to $50,548 and is now up about 70% so far this year. Bitcoin pared its gain after setting the record high. Ether, a rival crypto, hit a record on Friday and is up about 140% year-to-date.After ending last year with a fourth-quarter surge of 170% to around $29,000, Bitcoin token jumped to $40,000 seven days later. It took just nearly six weeks to breach the latest threshold, buoyed by endorsements from the likes of Paul Tudor Jones, Stan Druckenmiller and Elon Musk. Bitcoin traded for a few cents for several years after its debut more than a decade ago.Tesla Inc.’s announcement that it added $1.5 billion in Bitcoin to its balance sheet was the most visible recent catalyst, sending the price up 16% on Feb. 8, the biggest one-day gain since the Covid-19 inspired financial markets volatility in March. Optimism grew after Mastercard Inc. and Bank of New York Mellon Corp. moved to make it easier for customers to use cryptocurrencies, while Bloomberg reported Saturday that Morgan Stanley may add Bitcoin to its list of possible bets.“Whether it’s Musk, Mastercard or Morgan Stanley, the mood, music and momentum is impossible to ignore,” said Antoni Trenchev, managing partner and co-founder of Nexo in London, one of the biggest crypto lenders. “To the annoyance of many, the Bitcoin express has left the station.”MicroStrategy Inc. doubled down on its big bet on Bitcoin. The enterprise software maker said Tuesday that it would sell $600 million of convertible bond, with the intention of adding to its Bitcoin stash. This is the second time in three months that the Tysons Corner, Virginia-based company issued debt to fund the purchase of Bitcoin.The 400% rally over the past year comes amid a backdrop of near zero borrowing rates from central banks and unprecedented stimulus from governments in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Bitcoin advocates have criticized the moves as money printing even though inflation remains subdued.Mastercard, in a blog post last week, singled out so-called “stablecoins,” which often peg their value to that of another asset, such as the U.S. dollar. Mastercard has already partnered with crypto card providers such as Wirex and BitPay, but has required digital currencies to be converted into fiat before processing payments for transactions on its network.Trenchev cautioned that investors should be prepared for a wild ride after the latest milestone, pointing to last month’s 30% pullback as evidence.“Short-term volatility is very much a feature of this bull market and investors should prepare accordingly,” he said.Read more: Does Bitcoin Boom Mean ‘Better Gold’ or Bigger Bubble? QuickTakeFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.