Mastercard Incorporated
MA · Technology · FY2025 filings · · Wide moat ·
On the watchlist
The five investor questions
2021–2025 (latest 5 aligned FYs; v3 window cap 5): revenue $29.8B to $32.8B, increasing; diluted EPS 8.76 to 16.52, increasing.
Not enough years of gross-margin data to score pricing power.
Median ROIC 82.0%, above the 12% hurdle in 100% of years.
Net debt/EBITDA 0.4x, interest coverage 26x.
Owner earnings changed +15.7%/yr over up to the ten most recent annual observations, share count n/a.
The pricingPower component abstained: Not enough years of gross-margin data to score pricing power. The other four 20% weights were renormalized over the scored 80%.
Price vs. value if growth stopped today
A cautious baseline, not a price target: what the shares may support if normalized owner earnings simply hold steady.
- $11.6B
- Unavailable — insufficient owner-earnings data
- Unavailable — insufficient growth-model data
- $579.21
- No price data
This zero-growth estimate assumes trailing owner earnings persist — unreliable for declining businesses. The recent FY revenue series does not trigger the three-consecutive-declines flag.
Among the current top-score group, the median current price is 235% above the zero-growth estimate across 49 of the current top 50 companies by Moat Score with both values.
Score records captured Sep 7, 2026.
Exactly which 50 companies?
FTNT, META, MEDP, IBEX, MSFT, GOOG, LULU, ANF, IDXX, TXRH, FHI, QLYS, FFIV, ADBE, LLY, MANH, VEEV, RMD, GRMN, PCTY, EAT, UI, SSD, MNST, DOCS, LRCX, MCO, CPRT, NTAP, NVDA, CORT, SFM, MPTI, ULTA, SN, ROL, CTAS, PAYC, IRMD, INTU, DECK, MORN, JKHY, TPR, LGCY, DAL, GWW, ISRG, MPWR, LOPE
Missing a usable price or zero-growth estimate: ANF.
Model details under moat-index@3.0.0: zero-growth multiple 11.1×, capped-growth comparison at no more than 18×; 9% discount rate; high-end growth 4% (capped at 4%) using min(5y revenue CAGR, 5y diluted-EPS CAGR), clamped to 0%–4%; maintenance capex uses min(capex, D&A); abstain when D&A is unavailable. This is a disclosed model range, not intrinsic value as fact.
20 years of fundamentals
The business, in plain English
Across the filed record, revenue grew from $4.1B (FY2007) to $32.8B (FY2025) — about 12.3% a year compounded over 18 years.
It earned 94.2% on invested capital in the latest filed year, FY2025. Across the full 18-year measurable filed record, median ROIC was 84.1%. Over the v3 recent window (9 measurable filed years), median ROIC was 82.0%. The Returns on Capital filter above scores it 100/100.
The balance sheet carried $19.0B of total debt in FY2025 against $15.6B of owner earnings — roughly 1.2 years of owner earnings to retire it all. Balance-Sheet Safety scores it 94/100.
This breakdown is generated from the filed numbers and sub-scores above — no outside narrative, no estimates. Where a filing doesn’t disclose an input, the sentence that would need it is omitted instead of guessed.
Not disclosed in MA’s filings for these years — we don’t estimate it.
Exact FY and FY-1 financing invested-capital inputs are required.
The explained ROIC gaps have filed inputs but no meaningful positive invested-capital denominator. Other gaps mean the item is not in the filings for that year. The series is never interpolated or estimated. The Table view lists every filed value, including operating and net margins, total debt, and share count.
Visual explainers
The filing-backed explainer service is temporarily unavailable, so no partial or guessed chart is shown.
Moat Score history
Breaks in the line mark methodology or normalizer upgrades — readings across versions aren’t compared, so a level shift there isn’t a change in the business.
Tier changesSame-methodology and same-normalizer crossings of the Wide / Narrow / Shallow bars
- Normalizer upgraded unstamped (version unknown)tomoat-xbrl-normalizer@1.1.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 26, 2026
- Methodology upgraded moat-index@2.0.0tomoat-index@3.0.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 23, 2026
- Methodology upgraded moat-index@1.2.0tomoat-index@2.0.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 20, 2026
- Methodology upgraded moat-index@1.1.0tomoat-index@1.2.0 — readings across versions aren’t comparedJul 17, 2026
Scores are logged append-only and never overwritten — this record cannot be reconstructed retroactively, which is exactly why it’s worth keeping.
Insider activity
Form 4 reports mix P/S market or private transactions with compensation-plan mechanics. Activity casually described as “insider selling” can include compensation mechanics; awards, tax withholding, and option exercises are shown by their exact filed class here, never collapsed into “Bought” or “Sold.”
These are disclosed filing facts and arithmetic aggregates, not a signal or verdict.
The insider-filing service is temporarily unavailable, so no partial or guessed answer is shown for MA.
Track record
How Mastercard Incorporated’s moat rated in each of the years we can reconstruct from its filings — scored only on what was knowable at the time — and what its price and returns did afterward. The score never saw a price; the two are joined only in hindsight, for education, not as a signal.
How to read this: each dot is what the engine would have scored MA on that December 31; the line below is its total-return price path (dividends reinvested) in the years since.
Two tracks, one timeline: the score has its own 0–100 scale (top), the price its own 100-based scale (bottom) — never a shared axis. The price path is a total-return (dividends reinvested) index built from the same data the forward returns use; gaps in the score line are years with no reconstructed rating (see the table for why). The Table view carries every value.
What followed, in the years it rated Wide
In the 15 years MA rated Wide-moat (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025), the median forward total return that followed — measured only after each year’s filings were public — was:
- 1 year 19% vs the S&P 500’s 16% (price basis) · median over 14 years
- 3 years 85% vs the S&P 500’s 34% (price basis) · median over 12 years
- 5 years 165% vs the S&P 500’s 82% (price basis) · median over 10 years
These are medians computed from the data, not a claim about any one year. The company figures are total returns (dividends reinvested); the S&P 500 is the price-only ^GSPC index, which excludes dividends and so understates the index — the gap flatters the company. A quality rating is not a return forecast, and past returns don’t predict future ones. Educational only, not investment advice.
Technology context
#24 of 749 scored Technology companies, ranked by Moat Score.
Nearest peers by Moat Score
- #22MPWR Monolithic Power Systems, Inc.89.5 out of 100, Wide moatWide moat
- #23URI United Rentals, Inc.88.5 out of 100, Wide moatWide moat
- #25TTD The Trade Desk, Inc.88.1 out of 100, Wide moatWide moat
- #26ADSK AUTODESK, INC.87.7 out of 100, Wide moatWide moat
Compare MA with its nearest peers →All Technology companies on the Index →
Common questions about MA
- Does Mastercard Incorporated have an economic moat?
- Based on its FY2025 SEC filings, the Moat Index scores Mastercard Incorporated (MA) 88.5 out of 100 — a Wide moat. The five questions behind that score begin at 20% each; if exactly one genuinely lacks data, the other four weights are renormalized and disclosed. revenue and EPS trend 80, pricing power not measurable from the filings, returns on capital 100, balance-sheet safety 94, capital allocation 80.
- How has MA's Moat Score changed over time?
- The record logs 21 readings since Jul 17, 2026; the latest reads 88.5 out of 100 (wide moat). No tier changes on record yet. (Methodology or normalizer upgrades on Jul 17, 2026, Jul 20, 2026, Jul 23, 2026, Jul 26, 2026 re-based the score; readings across versions aren't compared.) The history is append-only — readings are only ever added, never rewritten.