MasterCard price target raised to $560 from $500 at Bernstein

Bernstein analyst Harshita Rawat raised the firm’s price target on MasterCard (MA) to $560 from $500 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares as part of a Q3 earnings preview for the payments space. Overall consumer spend decelerated slightly to 5%, with 0.5% of deceleration of volumes in Q3 likely driven by lower gas prices, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm says 2024 is shaping up to be a “narrative changing year for many payment companies as underlying secular growth slow (especially in the US), and competition intensifies.”