Dougherty & Associates LLC Takes Position in Visa Inc. $V

Dougherty & Associates LLC acquired a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 4,422 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $1,551,000. Visa accounts for 1.4% of Dougherty & Associates LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,455,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,054,343 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 24,792,246 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $8,463,484,000 after purchasing an additional 193,288 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 13,114,674 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,475,403,000 after purchasing an additional 530,995 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 3.3% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 12,458,913 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,253,224,000 after purchasing an additional 399,845 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,913,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,067,032,000 after purchasing an additional 1,298,435 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Down 0.1%

V stock opened at $325.42 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $311.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $325.74. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $293.89 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company has a market cap of $583.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.78.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 51.68%.The business had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.75 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.34%.

Visa announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, April 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the credit-card processor to purchase up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Visa News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Trump said he urged China to open its credit card market more to Visa, raising hopes for future international growth if market access improves. Reuters related coverage
• Positive Sentiment: Visa is expanding digital identity and card activation tools, while also launching AI-powered fan intelligence capabilities, reinforcing its innovation and product-growth story. Visa Links Tap Identity And AI Fan Data To Its Growth Story
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary highlighted strong spending trends and digital payments adoption, which generally support transaction volume for Visa’s network. Credit Card Charges Show This Glaring Divergence With The Economy
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa CFO Chris Suh sold shares in a disclosed insider transaction, which may slightly pressure sentiment but does not change the company’s operating outlook. SEC Form 4 filing
• Negative Sentiment: Separate news about delays in U.S. green-card processing and Hungary’s visa-worker policy are mostly unrelated to Visa Inc.’s business and should have limited direct impact on the stock. US Delays Green Card Processing For Indians In Key Visa Categories

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Evercore set a $350.00 price objective on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Loop Capital started coverage on Visa in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $387.00 price target on the stock. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $385.00 price target on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Visa from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total transaction of $10,699,103.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,161,284.36. The trade was a 67.46% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.62, for a total value of $201,253.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,679 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $829,471.98. This represents a 19.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 42,744 shares of company stock valued at $14,356,010. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Visa Company Profile

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.