Trust Co. of Vermont increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V – Free Report) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 69,818 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 1,944 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 1.0% of Trust Co. of Vermont’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest holding. Trust Co. of Vermont’s holdings in Visa were worth $24,486,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Sonoma Allocations LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth $710,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,241,348 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $438,196,000 after purchasing an additional 21,401 shares in the last quarter. Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $198,596,000 after purchasing an additional 14,581 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 24.1% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 823,262 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $281,045,000 after purchasing an additional 159,906 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 274,141 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $93,586,000 after purchasing an additional 8,061 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $395.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Macquarie Infrastructure reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $410.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Evercore set a $380.00 target price on Visa in a report on Friday, December 12th. Bank of America began coverage on Visa in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price target on the stock. Finally, HSBC raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 8th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $390.96.
Key Stories Impacting Visa
Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Visa launched six AI-powered dispute tools aimed at automating case analysis, merchant responses and real‑time insights — management says this should reduce fraud-related losses and backstop issuer/merchant relationships, supporting the company’s growth and margin story. Visa’s New AI Dispute Tools Target Fraud Costs And Support Growth Narrative
- Positive Sentiment: Visa is part of new merchant/payment product rollouts (example: Bitget Card in APAC), which can expand transaction volume and cross‑border flows in growing crypto-related payment use cases. These partnerships support TPS and fee growth if adoption scales. Bitget Brings Crypto Into Everyday Spending With APAC Launch of Bitget Card
- Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and trade press continue to flag Visa as a play on payments/crypto exposure in thematic lists — this can attract long-term thematic flows but is unlikely to move near-term fundamentals by itself. Top Cryptocurrency Stocks You Should Watch for a Healthy Portfolio
- Negative Sentiment: An analyst downgrade was published today, citing valuation or near-term concerns — downgrades can trigger short-term selling and pressure relative performance. Visa (NYSE:V) Stock Price Down 1.2% on Analyst Downgrade
- Negative Sentiment: UBS cut Visa’s price target (to $390), a formal pullback in street expectations that can limit upside for investor models and reweight recommendations. UBS Group Lowers Visa (NYSE:V) Price Target to $390.00
- Negative Sentiment: Competitive pressures: coverage notes that Mastercard is pursuing SMB spend via Amazon and embedded payments — successful wins by rivals in high-frequency merchant ecosystems could pressure Visa’s market-share or interchange trends over time. Can Mastercard Capture SMB Spend Through Amazon’s Ecosystem?
- Negative Sentiment: Emerging local competitors (discussion of a UK-focused rival) highlight regulatory and market-share risk in key markets — incremental but worth monitoring for longer-term competitive dynamics. Interview: Boku CEO Stuart Neal on why the UK needs a Mastercard, Visa rival
Visa Stock Up 0.0%
Shares of V opened at $300.88 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $315.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $331.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $546.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.22, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.80. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $293.89 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.11.
Visa (NYSE:V – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.14 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $10.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.69 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 61.74% and a net margin of 50.23%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.75 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.
Visa Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 10th were paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 10th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.14%.
Insider Activity at Visa
In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.62, for a total transaction of $201,253.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
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.
Further Reading
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