Visa Inc. $V Shares Purchased by Empirical Asset Management LLC

Empirical Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 244.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,787 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 11,207 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 0.8% of Empirical Asset Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,389,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Visa during the second quarter worth about $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. lifted its stake in Visa by 14.6% in the 2nd quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,769,936,000 after purchasing an additional 2,429,996 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 110.4% during the 2nd 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 last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $57,711,249,000 after purchasing an additional 1,461,575 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,253,245,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067,631 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total value of $3,661,152.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,401 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,282,641.18. This trade represents a 52.73% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $307.29 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $557.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.83, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.79. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $299.00 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $334.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $338.56. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results 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. Visa had a net margin of 50.23% and a return on equity of 61.74%. The company had revenue of $10.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.69 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.75 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 10th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.14%.

Trending Headlines about Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa expands in Argentina — the company agreed to acquire Prisma Medios de Pago and Newpay to bring local processing infrastructure in‑house and roll out tokenization/biometric tools, supporting Latin American growth prospects. Visa Deepens Argentina Roots
• Positive Sentiment: Underlying fundamentals remain supportive — Visa recently beat on revenue and EPS, holds strong margins and ROE, and continues to generate high free cash flow, which investors treat as a stabilizer versus cyclical headlines. (Quarterly results released Jan. 29.)
• Neutral Sentiment: Europe is evaluating ways to reduce reliance on Visa/Mastercard — discussions about alternative settlement rails in the UK and eurozone are developing but face structural and political hurdles; a long‑term risk to interchange and network economics if alternatives scale. Is Europe ready to reduce reliance on Visa and Mastercard?
• Neutral Sentiment: Competitive landscape commentary — analyst pieces contrast Visa with fast‑growing BNPL/digital players like Affirm and debate PayPal’s strategic options; these highlight potential upside for challengers but don’t immediately undercut Visa’s core network economics. Visa vs Affirm
• Negative Sentiment: AI routing scare hit the sector — a Citrini Research scenario about AI agents routing payments around card networks sparked heavy selling across payments firms, pressuring Visa and peers on concerns over future processing fee erosion. AI scenario spooked payments sector
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory setback in Mexico — Mexico’s antitrust regulator blocked Visa’s proposed controlling stake in Prosa, signaling tougher review of market consolidation and data/competition concerns in an important growth market. Mexico blocks Visa-Prosa acquisition
• Negative Sentiment: Merchant fee pressure risk — reports from other markets (e.g., New Zealand) show retailers warning that bans on card surcharges could push prices higher and squeeze merchant economics, which would indirectly pressure network/processor fee dynamics over time. NZ retailers warn on surcharge ban

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Evercore set a $380.00 price objective on Visa in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Piper Sandler set a $160.00 price target on Visa in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $385.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $395.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Macquarie Infrastructure reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $410.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $391.43.

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.