NewEdge Wealth LLC Grows Position in Visa Inc. $V

NewEdge Wealth LLC grew its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 235,093 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,297 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 0.8% of NewEdge Wealth LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th largest holding. NewEdge Wealth LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $71,055,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Invariant Investment Management acquired a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $969,000. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. raised its position in Visa by 58.1% in the first quarter. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. now owns 4,201 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,270,000 after purchasing an additional 1,543 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. lifted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 6,688 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $15,966,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $389.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $415.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $387.00 price objective (up from $375.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Eight 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $398.36.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $353.10 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $336.39 and a two-hundred day moving average of $325.10. The stock has a market cap of $633.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.76, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.75. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $293.89 and a 1-year high of $365.14.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 51.68%.The business had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 13.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Visa announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the credit-card processor to purchase up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa 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 sale, the general counsel directly owned 18,404 shares in the company, valued at $6,625,440. The trade was a 9.92% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the company’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 value of $3,455,653.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,206,524.32. The trade was a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 75,581 shares of company stock worth $25,627,975 in the last 90 days. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.