Vestcor Inc Sells 3,116 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Vestcor Inc decreased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 62,074 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 3,116 shares during the period. Vestcor Inc’s holdings in Visa were worth $21,770,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Invariant Investment Management purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $969,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $56,455,834,000 after acquiring an additional 1,054,343 shares during the period. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd raised its position in shares of Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 527,530 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $180,088,000 after purchasing an additional 23,863 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 2.1% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,884,879 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $984,840,000 after buying an additional 60,198 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Savvy Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 30.1% during the 4th quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 28,922 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,143,000 after purchasing an additional 6,688 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on V. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $403.00 price target (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $389.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Evercore set a $350.00 target price on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Freedom Capital upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 16th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $387.78.

Key Stories Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa is testing private stablecoin settlement with Brale on the Canton Network, a proof of concept aimed at enabling institutional payments with more privacy and efficiency. Investors may see this as evidence that Visa is expanding its payments infrastructure into a potentially high-growth use case. Article: Visa tests private stablecoin settlement with Brale, Canton
• Positive Sentiment: Visa’s new partnership with Brale reinforces its stablecoin strategy and suggests the company is actively building tools for institutional blockchain settlement, which could strengthen long-term growth prospects. Article: How Visa Advances Stablecoin Payment Vision With Brale Partnership?
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and others are collaborating on a new stablecoin platform suggest major payments players are validating the opportunity, which may help Visa if the initiative gains merchant traction. Article: Visa Mastercard Stablecoin Push Tests Circle USDC And Rich Valuation
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa also announced leadership appointments in Asia Pacific to support value-added services and Southeast Asia growth, a positive operating update but likely not a major near-term stock driver. Article: Visa Announces Asia Pacific Leadership Appointments to Scale Value-Added Services and Southeast Asia Growth
• Negative Sentiment: News that Visa and Mastercard payments are being halted in Cuba adds a small regional headwind, though the revenue impact is likely limited compared with Visa’s overall global business. Article: Visa, Mastercard payments to be halted in Cuba amid new US sanctions

Visa Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $324.03 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $581.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.23, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.77. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $293.89 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $316.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $324.49.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its 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. The firm had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The business’s revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Visa announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Tuesday, April 28th that permits the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the credit-card processor to reacquire up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total value of $3,455,653.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,206,524.32. This trade represents a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.62, for a total transaction of $201,253.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 2,679 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $829,471.98. The trade was a 19.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 42,744 shares of company stock valued at $14,356,010. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

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.