BNP Paribas Buys 13,234 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

BNP Paribas boosted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 178,748 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,234 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 1.8% of BNP Paribas’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. BNP Paribas’ holdings in Visa were worth $62,792,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $5,877,738,000. 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 valued at $1,396,930,000 after purchasing an additional 2,075,289 shares in the last quarter. 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 valued at $862,335,000 after purchasing an additional 1,872,362 shares in the last quarter. 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 valued at $1,059,990,000 after purchasing an additional 1,658,954 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Danske Bank A S bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter valued at about $565,684,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa’s long-term business model remains strong because it earns a fee on a huge share of global digital transactions, making it a durable “buy and hold forever” candidate for investors focused on secular growth. American Express vs. Visa: 2 Different Ways to Bet on Premium Consumer Spending
• Positive Sentiment: Market commentators say Visa now screens attractively after a year of weaker performance, suggesting the selloff may have reset the valuation on this high-quality payments franchise. Visa at $326, Mastercard at $493: Buy, Sell or Hold?
• Positive Sentiment: Visa’s recent investment in Replit and its work on AI-driven commerce could help position the company for future payment flows beyond traditional card swipes and tap-to-pay transactions. Visa’s Replit Investment Links AI Agents To Future Commerce Growth
• Neutral Sentiment: Several analyst-focused articles and comparisons with Mastercard and American Express are keeping Visa in the spotlight, but they mainly reinforce the debate over whether the stock is a buy, hold, or relative value play rather than pointing to a clear catalyst.
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that stablecoin adoption and interchange-related legal pressure could threaten Visa’s long-term economics, contributing to the stock’s recent underperformance versus the broader market. Visa at $326, Mastercard at $493: Buy, Sell or Hold?
• Negative Sentiment: One recent market view argues Visa may trail the equity market going forward, reflecting skepticism that the stock will quickly regain leadership after its recent slump. Visa: Why Trailing The Equity Market Seems The Most Likely Scenario Ahead

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on V shares. Daiwa Securities Group raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $370.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Weiss Ratings downgraded Visa from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $389.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Visa from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Loop Capital began coverage on Visa in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $387.00 price objective for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $386.70.

Visa Stock Down 1.2%

Shares of V stock opened at $322.57 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $578.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.78. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $293.89 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $315.33 and a 200 day moving average of $324.87. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.34%.

Visa declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, April 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the credit-card processor to reacquire 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.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.62, for a total value of $201,253.00. Following 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total value 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. This represents a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 42,744 shares of company stock worth $14,356,010 over the last three months. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Company Profile

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.