Avestar Capital LLC Sells 1,644 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Avestar Capital LLC lowered its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 19,143 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,644 shares during the period. Avestar Capital LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,714,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Invariant Investment Management purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $969,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $56,455,834,000 after acquiring an additional 1,054,343 shares during the period. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 527,530 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $180,088,000 after buying an additional 23,863 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,884,879 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $984,840,000 after purchasing an additional 60,198 shares during the period. Finally, Savvy Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 30.1% during the fourth quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 28,922 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,143,000 after acquiring an additional 6,688 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on V shares. Evercore set a $350.00 price target on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. BMO Capital Markets initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Tuesday, April 21st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $365.00 price objective on the stock. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $415.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Loop Capital started coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $387.00 price objective for the company. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $389.33.

Trending Headlines about Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa was named as a backer of a reportedly soon-to-launch stablecoin platform with Mastercard and Stripe, which could support faster and cheaper cross-border settlement and show Visa is helping build the next generation of payment rails. Report: Payments Giants Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe Back Stablecoin Platform for Faster Payments
• Positive Sentiment: Visa’s broader product push in commercial payments is also a tailwind, with recent expansion of its Commercial Solutions Hub and AI-powered receivables tools aimed at improving virtual card adoption, reconciliation, and payment efficiency. Visa (V) Announces Expansion of the Visa Commercial Solutions Hub
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa’s network is being used in new gold-backed consumer cards from Tether and Fasset, underscoring continued demand for Visa’s global acceptance infrastructure, though the direct financial impact is unclear. Tether Backs $1M in Gold Rewards as First Gold-Backed Visa Card Goes Live
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa was also mentioned in reports about companies exiting Cuba amid expanded U.S. sanctions, which is more of a geopolitical compliance issue than a meaningful earnings driver. Visa, Mastercard Join Exodus From Cuba on Expanded US Sanctions
• Negative Sentiment: Investors are focusing on the risk that stablecoin platforms could intensify competition in payments and shift some transaction economics away from traditional card networks like Visa, helping explain the stock’s weakness today. Mastercard and Visa Back Stealth Stablecoin Platform

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $313.90 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $293.89 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $315.83 and a 200-day moving average price of $324.56. The company has a market capitalization of $563.07 billion, a PE ratio of 27.34, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. Visa’s revenue was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 12th were paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.34%.

Visa announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, April 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the credit-card processor to buy up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related 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 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 trade represents a 51.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total value of $10,699,103.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,284.36. The trade was a 67.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 42,744 shares of company stock worth $14,356,010. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

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.