Mastercard Incorporated MA inked an agreement with PostePay, a subsidiary of the Poste Italiane Group and a frontrunner in Italy's digital payments market with more than 30 million cards issued and above 13 million digital wallets. The partnership will focus on introducing innovative digital payment solutions, enabled by tokenization and subsequently, integrate them within PostePay’s offerings, including cards, payment wallets and merchant solutions. 

Together, the companies have committed to executing a comprehensive program to develop and implement these services across Italy. These advancements will span all payment methods, channels and platforms—online and offline—to provide faster, seamless and safer purchasing experiences. The agreement also outlines a joint action plan for 2025, aimed at broadening payment and acceptance options for PostePay cardholders, wallet users and merchants across both online and in-store platforms.

Tokenization substitutes the traditional card number with a secure digital token, enhancing transaction approval rates while significantly mitigating the risk of fraud. This capability is further strengthened by innovative technologies such as Mastercard Click to Pay, a state-of-the-art checkout solution designed to offer a smooth and hassle-free online purchasing experience.

MA’s Endeavor to Capture Digital Growth Prospects in Italy

By delivering a secure, integrated and frictionless digital experience through collaborative efforts, Mastercard aims to drive growth of the digital payments ecosystem in Italy. The latest move also seems to be a time opportune one owing to the robust digital growth prospects across Italy as a result of which businesses and consumers nationwide are embracing digital means widely. 

To fulfil its endeavor, Mastercard took the help of PostePay in 2022 to introduce the innovative “Request to Pay” (RTP) solution across Italy.  The solution enables sellers or business owners to send digitized payment requests instantly to pay for a good or service to the buyer. Subsequently, the request reaches the web or the mobile device of a buyer, who on accepting the request, can complete the payments seamlessly via the PostePay App. 

Mastercard leverages its solid digital arm built on acquisitions, partnerships with well-established organizations and significant investments to harness opportunities prevailing in the global digital payments landscape. On the same day of announcing its partnership with PostePay, MA closed the acquisition of Recorded Future, a leading global threat intelligence company. The buyout will enhance its cybersecurity capabilities by integrating AI-driven threat intelligence, improving fraud prevention and refining real-time fraud-scoring tools. This strengthens the payment ecosystem's security, which is of immense importance amid a booming digital era.

MA’s Share Price Performance & Zacks Rank

Shares of Mastercard have gained 24.5% in the past year compared with the industry’s growth of 22.9%. MA currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

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Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the Business Services space are Parsons Corporation PSN, Payoneer Global Inc. PAYO and RB Global, Inc. RBA. Parsons currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and Payoneer Global and RB Global carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The bottom line of Parsons outpaced estimates in each of the last four quarters, the average surprise being 17.49%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PSN’s 2024 earnings indicates an improvement of 40.7% from the year-ago figure. The same for revenues implies growth of 24.2% from the prior-year tally. The consensus mark for PSN’s 2024 earnings has moved 6.9% north in the past 60 days.

Payoneer Global’s earnings outpaced estimates in three of the trailing four quarters and matched the mark once, the average surprise being 71.25%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for PAYO’s 2024 earnings indicates an improvement of 45.8% from the year-ago figure. The same for revenues implies growth of 15.2% from the year-ago actual. The consensus mark for PAYO’s 2024 earnings has moved 40% north in the past 60 days.

The bottom line of RB Global outpaced estimates in each of the last four quarters, the average surprise being 16.31%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for RBA’s 2024 earnings indicates an improvement of 11% from the year-ago figure. The same for revenues implies growth of 13.8% from the prior-year tally. The consensus mark for RBA’s 2024 earnings has moved 3.8% north in the past 60 days.

Shares of Parsons, Payoneer Global and RB Global have gained 48.3%, 95.3% and 37.2%, respectively, in the past year.

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Mastercard Incorporated (MA) : Free Stock Analysis Report

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