Meridiem Capital Partners LP Purchases New Position in Visa Inc. $V

Meridiem Capital Partners LP acquired a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 35,278 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $12,043,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in V. Sonoma Allocations LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at about $710,000. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,241,348 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $438,196,000 after acquiring an additional 21,401 shares during the last quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Visa by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 95,150 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $33,783,000 after acquiring an additional 5,295 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its position in Visa by 24.1% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 823,262 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $281,045,000 after acquiring an additional 159,906 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA increased its position in Visa by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA now owns 574,043 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $198,596,000 after acquiring an additional 14,581 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Piper Sandler set a $160.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $385.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Evercore set a $380.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, December 12th. HSBC raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 8th. Finally, Freedom Capital raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 16th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $392.65.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $829,471.98. This trade represents a 19.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total transaction of $3,661,152.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,401 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,282,641.18. This represents a 52.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.12% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of V stock traded up $1.85 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $308.35. The company had a trading volume of 557,244 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,073,653. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $299.00 and a 1-year high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The firm has a market cap of $559.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a 50 day moving average of $326.28 and a 200 day moving average of $336.40.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.14 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $10.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.69 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 61.74% and a net margin of 50.23%.The firm’s revenue was up 14.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.75 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 10th were given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 10th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.14%.

Visa 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.