X Square Capital LLC Invests $1.60 Million in Visa Inc. $V

X Square Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 4,548 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $1,595,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. Clayton Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Visa by 446.2% during the 4th quarter. Clayton Financial Group LLC now owns 71 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. PayPay Securities Corp grew its stake in Visa by 102.7% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Cresta Advisors Ltd. purchased a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Parvin Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Visa by 200.0% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Dorato Capital Management purchased a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 1.3%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $319.51 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $293.89 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $316.81 and a 200 day moving average of $324.48. The firm has a market capitalization of $573.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.83, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.76 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Visa declared that its board has authorized a share buyback 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 buy up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $403.00 price objective (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $415.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Loop Capital started coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $387.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.78.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total value of $10,699,103.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,284.36. This represents a 67.46% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 42,744 shares of company stock valued at $14,356,010 in the last quarter. 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.