Freestone Grove Partners LP Acquires New Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 151,411 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $51,948,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Parvin Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 200.0% in the third quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Cresta Advisors Ltd. bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Virtus Advisers LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the second quarter worth about $33,000. RHL Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. Finally, Timmons Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $34,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 57,272 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $364.97, for a total transaction of $20,902,561.84. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 49,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,125,140.14. This represents a 53.56% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total transaction of $729,720.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 18,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,625,440. This trade represents a 9.92% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 96,634 shares of company stock valued at $34,537,016 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Visa from $412.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Weiss Ratings raised Visa from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Visa from $387.00 to $405.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “buy” rating and set a $430.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Finally, Erste Group Bank upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, July 27th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty-four have given a Buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $414.54.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $383.47 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $293.89 and a one year high of $385.57. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $356.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $330.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $684.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.74.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.23 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 67.68% and a net margin of 50.78%.The firm had revenue of $11.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.98 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 13.16 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.79%.

Key Stories Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa and Bluefin launched a unified card-present payment platform for global merchants. The offering combines payment acceptance, security and device management, potentially simplifying enterprise deployments, reducing compliance burdens and expanding Visa’s merchant-services opportunity. Visa launches unified card-present payment platform
• Positive Sentiment: Visa joined Singapore’s BLOOM initiative, which is intended to connect traditional payment networks with stablecoin-based settlement rails. The effort could improve cross-border payment efficiency and give Visa an early role in digital-payment interoperability. Visa joins BLOOM initiative
• Positive Sentiment: Growing stablecoin card spending and Visa’s stablecoin initiatives support the company’s longer-term opportunity in digital wallets, cross-border transactions and emerging payment forms. The growth may help Visa remain relevant as payment activity expands beyond conventional cards. Visa BLOOM initiative and digital payments
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa approved KARTY LLC for a FinTech Innovation Award following its Qatar launch. The recognition highlights Visa’s partnerships with fintechs but is unlikely to materially affect near-term financial results. KARTY receives Visa FinTech Innovation Award
• Negative Sentiment: After touching $385.57, Visa surrendered the breakout. Commentary points to profit-taking and investor caution around its roughly 33-times earnings valuation, which makes sustained gains more difficult even though payment volumes remain healthy. Visa hits record then surrenders breakout
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Ryan McInerney sold 5,875 shares worth about $2.16 million under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 plan. The scheduled nature reduces the significance, but the transaction may still attract limited insider-selling scrutiny.

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.