Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Trims Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership cut its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.0% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 959,384 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 30,123 shares during the period. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership’s holdings in Visa were worth $327,515,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sonoma Allocations LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $710,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position 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 buying an additional 21,401 shares during the last quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 5.9% in 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 period. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 159,906 shares during the period. Finally, Loring Wolcott & Coolidge Fiduciary Advisors LLP MA boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.6% in the third 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on V. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $411.00 price target (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 30th. Piper Sandler set a $160.00 target price on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Freedom Capital raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 16th. Truist Financial set a $372.00 price objective on Visa in a report on Tuesday, February 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $391.43.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were 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 $3,282,641.18. This represents a 52.73% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.12% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $316.65 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $333.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $338.23. The firm has a market cap of $574.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.70, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.79. 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 Inc. has a 1 year low of $299.00 and a 1 year high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 net margin of 50.23% and a return on equity of 61.74%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.75 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 10th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.14%.

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.