Mastercard's Expenses Are on the Rise: A Threat to Profit Margins?

Mastercard Incorporated MA exited the first quarter with a sharp rise in costs. Its adjusted operating expenses rose 13% year over year to $3 billion in the first quarter, on the heels of 10.5% and 11.0% increases in 2023 and 2024, respectively. The increase in the first quarter was primarily caused by a hefty 32% rise in advertising and marketing expenses, along with growing general and administrative expenses, as the company focuses more on growth, brand visibility and digital expansion.

Despite the rising costs, MA’s adjusted operating margin witnessed an improvement. From 58% in 2023, the adjusted operating margin rose to 58.4% in 2024 and 59.3% in first-quarter 2025. This indicates that the company is effectively managing its expenses while performing well on revenues. Operating margin benefited from growth in cross-border transactions and increased demand for its value-added services.

As a global leader in payment solutions, MA mainly focuses on investing in infrastructure, cybersecurity, and authentication technologies. The company anticipates acquisitions to increase the operational expenditure growth rate for the year 2025 by approximately 5 percentage points.

Mastercard expects operating expenses to witness mid-teens growth from the year-ago figure in 2025, aligned with its net revenue forecast to witness low-teens growth in 2025. Expenses are up, but cannot be considered a threat until revenues keep growing and margins stay resilient. It’s the company’s strategic plan to grow stronger.

How Are Competitors Faring?

Some of MA’s competitors in the payments solutions space are Visa Inc. V and PayPal Holdings, Inc. PYPL.

Visa is facing cost pressure. Its adjusted operating expenses rose 7% year over year in the fiscal second quarter of 2025. Visa’s operating margin fell to 56.6% year over year in the same quarter from 61% a year ago. It forecasted its operating expenses to witness high single-digit to low double-digit growth on an adjusted nominal-dollar basis.

PayPal Holdings’ operating expenses fell 4.1% year over year in the first quarter of 2025. Its adjusted operating margin rose to 20.7% from 18.2% a year ago. PayPal’s non-GAAP non-transaction operating expenses are expected to grow in the low single-digit range in 2025.

Mastercard’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

Over the past year, MA’s shares have gained 30.2% compared with the industry’s rise of 26.2%.

From a valuation standpoint, MA trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 34.12, above the industry average of 23.51. MA carries a Value Score of F.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Mastercard’s 2025 earnings implies 9.5% growth from the year-ago period. It witnessed one upward estimate revision in the past month against no movement in the opposite direction.

Mastercard currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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