Meridian Financial Partners LLC Acquires 1,987 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Meridian Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 24.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 10,099 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 1,987 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 1.3% of Meridian Financial Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Meridian Financial Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,285,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in Visa by 110.4% during the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,954,937 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,396,930,000 after purchasing an additional 2,075,289 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP boosted its position in Visa by 286.4% during the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 2,526,026 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $862,335,000 after purchasing an additional 1,872,362 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in Visa by 121.7% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 3,022,411 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,059,990,000 after purchasing an additional 1,658,954 shares during the period. Danske Bank A S bought a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth about $565,684,000. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in Visa by 73.4% during the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 3,197,405 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,091,528,000 after purchasing an additional 1,353,441 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on V. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Visa from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 16th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Evercore set a $350.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Truist Financial set a $371.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Freedom Capital upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 16th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $387.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total transaction of $3,455,653.59. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at $3,206,524.32. The trade was a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total transaction of $10,699,103.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,161,284.36. The trade was a 67.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 42,744 shares of company stock worth $14,356,010 over the last three months. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

More Visa News

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa expanded its Flexible Credential offering in the U.K. with Zilch and Thredd, letting consumers choose among multiple payment options through one card. That supports Visa’s push into more flexible, digital-first payment experiences and could increase network usage. Visa Flexible Credential Brings More Flexible Ways to Pay to Zilch Cardholders in the UK
• Positive Sentiment: Recent commentary highlighted contactless payments, BNPL adoption, and cross-border growth as favorable long-term trends for payment processors like Visa, reinforcing the bullish industry backdrop. 5 Financial Transaction Stocks to Watch Amid Digital Advancements
• Positive Sentiment: Another report pointed to record U.S. consumer spending as a supportive backdrop for fintech and card networks, which can lift Visa’s transaction volumes and fee revenue. U.S. Consumer Spending Tops $21.86T: 5 Fintech Stocks Under $75
• Positive Sentiment: Visa also teamed with FPT AI Factory and InFlow on an agent-native commerce platform, expanding its role in AI-driven commerce and autonomous payments. FPT AI Factory Partners with InFlow and Visa Intelligent Commerce to Launch an Agent-Native Commerce Platform
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa received additional attention for launching tap-based identity verification with Fidelity Bank Bahamas, a product innovation that supports its payments ecosystem but is not likely to move earnings immediately. Visa launches tap-based identity verification with Fidelity Bank Bahamas
• Negative Sentiment: Visa CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares, cutting his direct stake by more than half. Insider selling can weigh on sentiment even if it does not change the company’s fundamentals. SEC Form 4 filing

Visa Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $322.11 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $293.89 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The firm has a market cap of $577.80 billion, a PE ratio of 28.06, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $311.10 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $325.89.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The business had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Visa declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit-card processor to purchase up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.