Ascent Wealth Partners LLC Grows Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

Ascent Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 28,619 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,608 shares during the period. Ascent Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $8,650,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 purchasing an additional 1,054,343 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 82,798,151 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,038,140,000 after buying an additional 626,821 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,042,586 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,411,395,000 after buying an additional 388,996 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Visa by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 41,092,294 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $14,411,480,000 after buying an additional 716,218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 23,835,336 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,359,291,000 after buying an additional 398,459 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total transaction of $3,455,653.59. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at $3,206,524.32. This trade represents a 51.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total transaction of $729,720.00. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 18,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,625,440. The trade was a 9.92% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 75,581 shares of company stock valued at $25,627,975 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa launched its Stablecoin Platform, an enterprise tool for banks, fintechs, and crypto-native firms to mint, move, store, and redeem stablecoins in one Visa-managed environment. Investors may view this as a meaningful new growth avenue that could expand Visa’s role in blockchain-based payments. Visa Introduces Platform for Stablecoin Minting, Movement and Management
• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Visa joined Google and Stripe in the x402 Foundation, which is building an open standard for machine-to-machine and AI agent payments. That supports Visa’s long-term relevance in emerging micro-payment and autonomous commerce use cases. Google and Visa join the online micro-payments revolution
• Positive Sentiment: Visa and Artemis highlighted that stablecoins could become key infrastructure for AI agent micropayments, reinforcing the idea that Visa is positioning itself early in a potentially large new payment category. Stablecoins Emerge as Key Infrastructure for AI Agent Micropayments, Visa and Artemis Report
• Positive Sentiment: Hong Leong Bank launched Malaysia’s first Visa Infinite Privilege card, showing continued strength in Visa’s premium product lineup and international card issuance. Hong Leong Bank Debuts Malaysia’s First Visa Infinite Privilege Card
• Positive Sentiment: Visa was also upgraded to “strong-buy” by an analyst source, adding to bullish sentiment around the stock. Visa upgraded by Clear Str Llc to strong-buy
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles discuss Visa’s new AI assistants, agentic payments pilots, and refreshed Visa Infinite offerings in Asia-Pacific. These developments are constructive, but they are mostly early-stage or product refreshes rather than immediate financial catalysts. What Visa (V)’s New AI Assistants and Agentic Payments Mean For Shareholders

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $415.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $389.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $371.00 price target on Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $398.36.

Visa Trading Down 1.8%

Shares of V stock opened at $358.51 on Friday. 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 Inc. has a twelve month low of $293.89 and a twelve month high of $365.14. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $334.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $325.20. The stock has a market cap of $643.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.23, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.75.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The firm had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.75 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.76 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 13.11 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan 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 buy up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.34%.

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.