Mastercard Incorporated (MA) is overvalued and Synchrony Financial (SYF) is undervalued.
Against our estimates of intrinsic value, SYF trades at the wider discount: a margin of safety of +34%, against -23% for MA.
Values as of the 22 Sept 2026 close.
Discounting its cash flows at 9.0% (average of 3 methods) values the shares at $451.02; the price of $555.89 is 23% above that value, and 77% of that value comes from beyond year five.
Leak Score 70/100 on 9 of 12 signals
Book value at 2.18x, the multiple a 20.8% return on equity justifies, blended with earnings, values the shares at $109.41; the price of $72.67 is 34% below that value.
Leak Score 80/100 on 7 of 12 signals
| Metric | MA | SYF |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Overvalued | Undervalued |
| Price | $555.89 | $72.67 |
| Intrinsic value | $451.02 | $109.41 |
| Margin of safety | -23% | +34% |
| Leak Score | 70/100 (9/12) | 80/100 (7/12) |
| Market cap | $487.0B | $23.6B |
| Revenue growth, 5 years | 16.5% | 8.3% |
| Operating margin | 59.2% | 28.5% |
| Net margin | 46.3% | 18.1% |
| Return on equity | 241.5% | 20.8% |
| Debt to equity | 4.39 | 0.97 |
| P/E | 30.6x | 7.5x |
| Forward P/E | 24.1x | 7.0x |
| P/B | 87.0x | 1.6x |
| Dividend yield | 0.6% | 1.8% |