Mastercard Joins Hands with Accenture & Salesforce to Bolster Sustainability Efforts

To bolster its ability to measure and analyze carbon emissions across its value chain, Mastercard (MA) has joined hands with Accenture (ACN) and Salesforce (CRM).

The move is part of Mastercard’s efforts to reduce absolute Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2025 from a 2016 baseline.

With the help of Salesforce Sustainability Cloud, Mastercard will be able to collect information about the emissions of its suppliers. Thus, it will be able to work more effectively with the organizations in its partner network to take meaningful climate action. (See Mastercard stock chart on TipRanks)

Notably, Mastercard is one of the first global companies to use Sustainability Cloud to analyze the carbon footprint of its supply chain.

The Chief Sustainability Officer at Mastercard, Kristina Kloberdanz, said, “As Mastercard continues to build a more sustainable digital economy, we know that fostering collective climate action, in partnership with our suppliers, is key to our success.”

“Working with Accenture and Salesforce to further enhance our visibility into carbon emissions data is a critical step in decarbonizing our partner network and meeting our broader net zero targets,” he added.

On September 12, Deutsche Bank analyst Bryan Keane reiterated a Buy rating on Mastercard with a price target of $420 (22.4% upside potential from current level).

Keane said, “MA’s ability to co-innovate with partners has led to recent new wins and share gains and the company sees disintermediation unlikely due to the significant value its two-sided network brings to the market. MA stays ahead of key trends and risks mainly by continuing to invest in innovation and building out further acceptance.”

The rest of the Street is bullish on the stock with a Strong Buy consensus rating based on 15 Buys and 1 Hold. The average Mastercard price target of $439.94 implies upside potential of about 28.3% from current levels.