Alesco Advisors LLC An ESL Co Boosts Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Alesco Advisors LLC An ESL Co lifted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 139.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,670 shares during the quarter. Alesco Advisors LLC An ESL Co’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,422,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Clayton Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 446.2% in the 4th quarter. Clayton Financial Group LLC now owns 71 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC grew its position in Visa by 200.0% during the 3rd quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. PayPay Securities Corp grew its position in Visa by 102.7% during the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Cresta Advisors Ltd. purchased a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, Dorato Capital Management purchased a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on V. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $400.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Visa from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Robert W. Baird set a $412.00 price target on shares of Visa and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Clear Str raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Truist Financial set a $371.00 price target on shares of Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 12th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $398.36.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $355.94 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $638.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.00, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.75. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $335.74 and a 200 day moving average of $325.08. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $293.89 and a 52 week high of $365.14. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The business had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.76 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 13.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Visa announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit-card processor to reacquire up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total transaction of $729,720.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 18,404 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,625,440. This represents a 9.92% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,284.36. This represents a 67.46% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 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 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

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.