Is Mastercard’s Next Big Thing Already Here?
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Buyers of Mastercard (MA) stock are paying for growth that runs well past 2026. The stock trades at 34.0 times earnings, against 22.8 for the S&P 500. While the company is best known as the network behind the card in your wallet, the network itself was not the faster-growing part of Mastercard in fiscal Q3 2026. So what does Mastercard sell on top of its network, and is it already paying off? So far, only in part: services are growing fast, but Mastercard’s total revenue growth has not sped up.
What Mastercard Sells On Top Of Its Network
Mastercard sells value-added services and solutions, such as cybersecurity tools, to the banks and businesses whose payments already run on its network. Management laid out how the two parts feed each other on the October 29, 2026 call. Mastercard gets the volume, sells services on that volume, and the services then become the reason more volume comes to the network.
The newest products give the first proof. Digital Risk Protection, which helps organizations find weak spots in their own digital systems, served nearly 800 enterprise customers after only a few months on the market, management said. Mastercard also signed a broad strategic partnership with OpenAI that includes the use of Agent Pay, and management said the two companies agreed to work together to grow services. Mastercard sells services even inside card deals. The small business deal with HDFC Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, includes value-add services and solutions.
How Fast Are Mastercard’s Services Growing?
In fiscal Q3 2026, net revenue from value-added services and solutions rose 19%, against 11% for the payment network. Total net revenue grew 14%. Landing between the two, this figure suggests services are already a sizable part of the company rather than a side line. That services figure now includes BVNK, which Mastercard bought to connect stablecoins with traditional payments, though management said acquisitions had minimal impact.
Mastercard as a whole has not sped up yet. Revenue grew 15.3% over the twelve months to September 30, 2026, against 15.6% in the twelve months before.
Investors have rewarded Mastercard anyway. The stock returned 19.6% in the twelve months to November 2, 2026, against 11.8% for the S&P 500, and its November 2 close was its highest of the past year. The price appears to assume that services keep growing faster than the network.
What Has To Go Right For Mastercard
The volume that services are sold on is not free. Mastercard uses rebates and incentives to bring volume and transactions onto its network. Management expects those payments to be higher in fiscal Q4 2026 than in fiscal Q3 2026, measured as a percent of the gross fees it charges.
Management said it will give its formal guidance for 2027 in its next quarterly release, and Mastercard is expected to report in January 2027. For the stock, value-added services and solutions need to keep outgrowing the payment network. Compare those two growth rates in that report.
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