MasterCard (MA) Stock Higher Despite Card Fee Ruling
Bloomberg News
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of MasterCard (MA) - Get Report are gaining 1.23% to $91.45 this afternoon after a London judge ordered the company to pay U.K. supermarket chain J Sainbury (JSAIY) $90.8 million in a card fee case.
The lawsuit alleged that default fees charged by MasterCard were too high, MarketWatch reports.
The judge said that merchants have no choice but to accept cards from all card issuers, so MasterCard was free to set rates higher than what they would have been with negotiations.
The ruling sets fees for credit cards at 0.5% vs. 0.9%, and for debit cards at 0.27% vs. 0.36%. The damages owed by Mastercard were calculated based on the difference between the rates.
Several other U.K. retailers are also suing card issuers, including MasterCard, with similar claims.
Separately, TheStreet Ratings rated this stock as a "buy" with a ratings score of A-.
The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, notable return on equity, expanding profit margins and good cash flow from operations.
TheStreet Ratings feels its strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself.
You can view the full analysis from the report here: MA
Recently, TheStreet Ratings objectively rated this stock according to its "risk-adjusted" total return prospect over a 12-month investment horizon. Not based on the news in any given day, the rating may differ from Jim Cramer's view or that of this articles's author.