Darwin Wealth Management LLC Boosts Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Darwin Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 29.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,646 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 1,762 shares during the quarter. Darwin Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,311,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Financial Connections Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 10.5% during the first quarter. Financial Connections Group Inc. now owns 578 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $174,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV raised its position in shares of Visa by 7.0% in the first quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV now owns 1,480 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $447,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Torray Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in Visa by 0.9% during the first quarter. Torray Investment Partners LLC now owns 19,800 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,984,000 after purchasing an additional 167 shares during the period. Osprey Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 5.7% in the 1st quarter. Osprey Private Wealth LLC now owns 44,268 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $13,380,000 after purchasing an additional 2,378 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Avid Wealth Partners LLC boosted its position in Visa by 16.2% during the 1st quarter. Avid Wealth Partners LLC now owns 983 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $297,000 after purchasing an additional 137 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird set a $412.00 price objective on Visa and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Visa from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Visa from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $397.91.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock traded up $0.85 on Friday, hitting $349.05. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,701,656 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,985,494. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company has a market capitalization of $626.12 billion, a PE ratio of 30.41, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.75. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $330.81 and its 200-day moving average is $325.05. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $293.89 and a fifty-two week high of $365.02.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 51.68%.The company’s revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.76 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 13.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Visa declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the credit-card processor to reacquire up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,490 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $343.99, for a total transaction of $3,608,455.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at $5,219,704.26. This trade represents a 40.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total value of $729,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 18,404 shares in the company, valued at $6,625,440. This represents a 9.92% decrease in their position. 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. Insiders sold a total of 75,581 shares of company stock worth $25,627,975 over the last three months. 0.12% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa 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.