Analysis of Mastercard's Q3'22 Earnings and Crypto Initiatives

Following this morning's reporting of Q3'22 earnings, Mastercard shares traded relatively flat at ~$317.57 per share in intra-day pricing as of this writing. Year-to-date, Mastercard performed better than the S&P 500 and NASDAQ indices at (12%) relative to (20%) and (31%) for S&P 500 and NASDAQ, respectively. 

That being said, Mastercard's fundamental performance has contracted relative to a year ago in Q3'21. Net revenue declined (13.4%) while operating expenses as a percentage of sales increased ~100bps from 42.3% to 43.3%. The compressed net revenue and increased operating expenses resulted in a (15.2%) decline in operating income from $3.3bn in Q3'21 to $2.8bn in Q3'22.