What smart money is saying about Mastercard
5 funds in our archive have pitched Mastercard — most recently Fundsmith Equity Fund in June 2026.
Mastercard Incorporated is a global technology firm specializing in providing transaction processing and a wide array of payment solutions, operating across the United States and internationally. Its core business centers on enabling the entire payment transaction lifecycle – including authorization, clearing, and settlement – alongside offering a spectrum of complementary payment services. The company provides a comprehensive suite of integrated products and value-added services to a diverse clientele, which includes individual account holders, merchants, financial institutions, businesses, governments, and other organizations. These offerings span programs enabling deferred payment credit, prepaid card management services, commercial credit and debit solutions, and tools for accessing funds in deposit and other accounts. Additionally, Mastercard offers advanced cyber and intelligence solutions designed to secure transactions for all participants, and provides proprietary insights derived from the responsible utilization of consumer and merchant data. For online merchants, its specialized offerings encompass analytics, experimental "test and learn" platforms, consulting, managed services, loyalty programs, payment processing, and secure gateway technologies. The company also operates open banking and digital identity platforms. Its prominent payment solutions are delivered under the MasterCard, Maestro, and Cirrus brands. Established in 1966, Mastercard Incorporated is headquartered in Purchase, New York.
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Position history
Between Q1 2026 and Q2 2026, 16 fund letters reported a position in Mastercard — 6 opened or added to the position, 1 trimmed or exited.
| Quarter | Letters | Bought | Sold | Theses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q2 2026 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| Q1 2026 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
Fund activity · 16 positions · 7 moves
- June 2026
“We substantially increased our investments in Visa and Mastercard on the basis described above.”
Read the letterMastercard - June 2026
“Quarterly Purchases Table 3: Quarterly Sales Activity Quarterly Purchases Copart Initial Position Liberty Capital Increase Position HCA Healthcare Increase Position McKesson Increase Position Quarterly Sales Linamar Decrease Position Visa Decrease Position Mastercard Decrease Position Group 1 Automotive Decrease Position”
Read the letterMastercard - HoldsAve Maria FundsJune 2026
Listed in Ave Maria Funds’s reported holdings.
Read the letterMastercard - New positionFundsmith Equity FundJune 2026
“We began accumulating stakes in AppLovin, GE Vernova, Legrand, Mastercard, Netflix, Nextpower, Sage, The TJX Companies, TSMC, Uber, Veeva Systems, and Yum! Brands.”
Read the letterMastercard - New positionBaillie Gifford US Equity GrowthJune 2026
“We have continued to broaden the portfolio's enduring growth exposure with new purchases in IDEXX and Mastercard.”
Read the letterMastercard - June 2026
“We own Index constituents such as Charles Schwab, JP Morgan, Mastercard and Progressive Corp. that continue to grow their earnings per share at healthy rates and in some cases at higher rates than usual, but whose stock prices are lagging.”
Read the letterMastercard - June 2026
“It was an unusual quarter from a performance attribution perspective. Information Technology (IT) was the only sector in the Index to outperform the Index, accounting for two-thirds of its total gain. The Fund’s entire 156bps shortfall relative to the Index could be attributed either to weak stock selection in IT, which detracted 279bps, or to weak stock selection in Financials, which cost an additional 227bps. Somehow, all 11 of our holdings classified as Financials, including Visa and Mastercard , which we view as digital railroads, and MSCI , Moody’s , and S&P Global , which we view as business services, detracted from our relative returns during the quarter.”
Read the letterMastercard - New positionPershing SquareJune 2026
“Earlier this year, we initiated positions in Visa and Mastercard, two businesses we have long admired, which provide the dominant global networks for consumer and commercial payments, with an increasing share of revenue growth coming from value-added services.”
Read the letterMastercard - HoldsBaron Financials ETFJune 2026
Listed in Baron Financials ETF’s reported holdings.
Read the letterMastercard - March 2026
“Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. United States 2.0 Insurance Mastercard Inc. United States 3.6 Financial Services”
Read the letterMastercard - March 2026
“Portfolio Holdings Data as of March 31, 2026. Source: FactSet, Hardman Johnston Global Advisors LLC®. The data shown is of a representative portfolio for the Hardman Johnston Select Equity strategy and is for informational purposes only and is not indicative of future portfolio characteristics/returns. Actual results may vary for each client due to specific client guidelines and other factors. The representative portfolio was chosen as most representative of the Select Equity strategy. Future investments may or may not be profitable. C ountry We ig ht ( %) Indus try Communicat ion Serv ices 8.1 Alphabet Inc. United States 7.1 Interactive Media & Services Comcast Corp. United States 0.9 Diversified Telecommunication Services Versant Media Group, Inc. United States 0.1 Media Consumer Discret ionary 2.7 SharkNinja, Inc. United States 2.7 Household Durables Consumer St aples 0.8 Estee Lauder Companies Inc. United States 0.8 Personal Care Products Energy 1.9 Cameco Corporation Canada 1.9 Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels Financials 9.7 Charles Schwab Corp United States 3.0 Capital Markets Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. United States 3.0 Insurance Mastercard Inc. United States 3.8 Financial Services”
Read the letterMastercard - March 2026
“For the strategy, these include our investments in payments companies Visa and Mastercard, credit bureaus Experian and Equifax (both initiated in 2025), software companies Microsoft, Autodesk, and Workday (we exited Intuit during the quarter), and one of our Financial Market Infrastructure (FMI) investments the London Stock Exchange Group. Our other FMI investments—Deutsche Boerse and B3— have very little risk of AI disintermediation and have instead benefited from market volatility year-to-date, positively contributing to portfolio returns. The bear case for AI—replacing companies, potentially entire industries, and negatively impacting long-term white-collar unemployment—has been widely referred to as the “AI death star”. Whilst we do believe the bear case encompasses real risks, the market appears to be oversimplifying it. At the end of the first quarter, we had conducted drawdown reviews on all the aforementioned companies. The Global Leaders drawdown process forms an integral part of capital allocation and risk management for the Fund, and we place strong emphasis on avoiding losers as a key driver of long-term performance. Drawdown reviews trigger actions within the portfolio (we either add to positions or exit), and present an opportunity to reallocate to opportunities with better probability-adjusted IRRs, either within the portfolio or from the ready-to-buy list. We added to all the aforementioned companies and exited one investment: US tax and back-office software company Intuit.”
Read the letterMastercard - March 2026
Listed in Buffalo Blue Chip Growth Fund’s reported holdings.
Read the letterMastercard - HoldsBuffalo Growth FundMarch 2026
“FUND MANAGEMENT TOP 10 HOLDINGS (%)* NVIDIA Corporation 12.20 Alphabet, Inc. 11.82 Microsoft Corporation 11.22 Amazon.com, Inc. 8.79 Apple, Inc. 8.21 Meta Platforms, Inc. 5.46 Broadcom, Inc. 3.61 Visa, Inc. 2.71 Mastercard, Inc. 2.54 Booking Holdings, Inc. 2.02 Top 10 Holdings Total 68.58 FUND FACTS Inv. Inst. Ticker BUFGX BIIGX”
Read the letterMastercard - HoldsFlexible Equity FundMarch 2026
Listed in Flexible Equity Fund’s reported holdings.
Read the letterMastercard - March 2026
“We did differentiate and avoided ALL banks while making Mastercard one of our largest positions. Its average weight in 2009 was approximately 6.5% in Large Cap and approximately 9.7% in Focus and Focus Plus. Mastercard has delivered a nearly 23% gross compounded annual return during the 17 plus years we have owned it versus 14.1% for the S&P 500 over that same time period. Our money weighted return is even better because, following our investment discipline, we have added to it when it was more discounted and trimmed it when it became more fully valued.”
Read the letterMastercard
Also mentioned · 4
These funds discuss Mastercard — as a competitor, benchmark or comparable — without disclosing a position in it.
- MentionedTroy Asset Management Global Equity StrategyJuly 2026
“• Agentic commerce. Whilst we have our various doubts as to why agentic commerce will not be adopted quite as fast as its leading proponents suggest, the networks are not passive bystanders.5 Visa has launched its Intelligent Commerce Platform and Trusted Agent Protocol; Mastercard has Agent Pay.”
Read the letterMastercard - MentionedVision Capital FundJune 2026
“New Fund Write-ups We wrote two new memos in Q2 2026 on Tencent Holdings (HK: 700) and Mastercard (MA).”
Read the letterMastercard - MentionedBrasada CM Brasada Private AccountsJune 2026
“the example below of Micron (a historically cyclical memory business) and Mastercard (a historically secular payments company) may help explain the different concepts here:”
Read the letterMastercard - MentionedOptimist FundJune 2026
“Affirm has been profitable (on a GAAP basis) for only eighteen months which is too brief to be seen as a blue-chip payments franchise like Visa or Mastercard.”
Read the letterMastercard
Fund coverage · 5 theses
- Fundsmith Equity FundJune 2026
Mastercard operates a global payments network with powerful network effects and long runway from cash-to-digital migration and B2B payments.
Read the full thesis - Baillie Gifford US Equity GrowthJune 2026
Mastercard benefits from the secular shift away from cash and from a trusted, ubiquitous, capital-light network with high margins and strong returns.
Read the full thesis - Pershing SquareJune 2026
Mastercard operates a dominant global payments network with strong growth, expanding value-added services, and durable moat-like economics.
Read the full thesis - Vision Capital FundJune 2026
Mastercard is a highly profitable payments network with powerful secular tailwinds from cash-to-digital migration and growing value-added services.
Read the full thesis - Appalaches CapitalMarch 2026
Mastercard is a scaled, low-cost global payments network with strong competitive advantages and minimal long-term risk from regulation or AI, and is positioned to benefit from innovation and international growth.
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