Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. cut its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V – Free Report) by 6.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 31,436 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,123 shares during the period. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $11,025,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Invariant Investment Management acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $969,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,455,834,000 after buying an additional 1,054,343 shares in the last quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd increased its stake in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the third 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. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 2.1% in the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,884,879 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $984,840,000 after buying an additional 60,198 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Savvy Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 30.1% in the fourth quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 28,922 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,143,000 after buying an additional 6,688 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Freedom Capital upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 16th. Truist Financial set a $371.00 target price on Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Evercore set a $350.00 price target on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on Visa in a report on Thursday, March 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price target on the stock. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $387.78.
Visa Price Performance
Visa stock opened at $323.31 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $317.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $324.48. The stock has a market cap of $579.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.77. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $293.89 and a 12-month high of $375.51. 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 – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $11.23 billion for 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.76 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current year.
Visa Announces Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.34%.
Visa announced that its board has approved a share buyback program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.
More Visa News
Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:
- Positive Sentiment: Visa announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI to enable secure payments inside ChatGPT and support “agentic commerce,” giving the company a high-profile role in AI-driven shopping and payments. Visa to Secure Payments for Shoppers on ChatGPT in OpenAI Partnership
- Positive Sentiment: Related coverage says Visa is building infrastructure and card tools for AI shopping, reinforcing the idea that it wants to stay central as merchants and developers adopt AI-powered checkout. How Visa is Designing Smarter Credit Cards for AI Shopping
- Positive Sentiment: Visa also partnered with OpenWay to help banks and fintechs in Asia Pacific launch payment offerings faster, supporting network expansion and innovation across more channels. Can Visa Accelerate Payment Innovation Through OpenWay Tie-up?
- Neutral Sentiment: A judge gave preliminary approval to Visa’s $38 billion swipe-fee settlement with merchants, which may reduce legal uncertainty, but retail groups are still expected to challenge the deal. US judge OKs Visa, Mastercard $38 billion swipe fee settlement
- Neutral Sentiment: Visa’s CFO downplayed the short-term impact of stablecoins and agentic commerce, suggesting management is not yet counting on those themes to materially drive near-term results. Visa’s CFO downplays the importance of stablecoin and agentic commerce
- Negative Sentiment: The recurring merchant-fee headlines highlight ongoing pressure on Visa’s core business model, as investors continue to weigh the risk of lower interchange economics over time. Why there’s no end to Visa and Mastercard’s fee battles with merchants
Insider Activity
In other Visa news, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer owned 9,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,206,524.32. This represents a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 $5,161,284.36. The trade was a 67.46% 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. Corporate 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.
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