41,890 Shares in Visa Inc. $V Bought by S&CO Inc.

S&CO Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 41,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $14,372,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,455,834,000 after buying an additional 1,054,343 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its position in Visa by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 82,798,151 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,038,140,000 after buying an additional 626,821 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,042,586 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,411,395,000 after acquiring an additional 388,996 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Visa by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 41,092,294 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $14,411,480,000 after acquiring an additional 716,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Visa by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 23,835,336 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,359,291,000 after acquiring an additional 398,459 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $416.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $420.00 price target (up from $410.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $432.00 price objective (up from $412.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $406.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty-four have given a Buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $413.58.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $363.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 0.99. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $293.89 and a 52-week high of $373.97. The firm has a market cap of $649.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.94, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.74. The business’s fifty day moving average is $349.37 and its 200 day moving average is $328.29.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.23 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 67.68% and a net margin of 50.78%.The business had revenue of $11.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.98 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 13.15 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 11th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 11th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.79%.

Visa declared that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 28th that permits the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the credit-card processor to repurchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total transaction of $729,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 18,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,625,440. The trade was a 9.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 57,272 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $364.97, for a total transaction of $20,902,561.84. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 49,662 shares in the company, valued at $18,125,140.14. This trade represents a 53.56% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 90,759 shares of company stock valued at $32,375,779. 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.