MA
V
The market gave Mastercard a discount, and someone noticed
Mastercard just got bumped back to a buy, basically because Wall Street thinks the stock has had a tiny identity crisis after a 12% drop and a 26% slide in its valuation multiple. Translation: the price got softer, but the business didn’t suddenly stop being a cash machine.
Why the bulls are still swiping right
The core of the argument is pretty simple: Mastercard is still growing faster than Visa. Last quarter, its revenue rose 300 basis points faster than V, which is the kind of detail analysts love to turn into a “deserves a premium” thesis.
That matters because payment networks are all about the same two things: who’s growing faster, and who can keep investors convinced the growth is durable. If MA can keep outrunning the competition, a higher valuation multiple starts to look less like a luxury and more like a receipt.
The earnings preview part
This isn’t just a vibes call, either. Management is guiding Q1 2026 net revenue growth to the low end of low double digits, while operating expense growth is expected in the high single digits. In plain English: revenue is still climbing faster than costs, which is the kind of math shareholders like to see when they’re not busy doom-scrolling.
Big picture
Mastercard isn’t being sold as a moonshot here. It’s being pitched as a high-quality compounding machine that got cheaper for a minute. If growth holds up and expenses stay reasonably behaved, the stock may have more room to breathe than the recent selloff suggested.