Visa Inc. $V Holdings Raised by MCF Advisors LLC

MCF Advisors LLC grew its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 16.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,757 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,248 shares during the quarter. MCF Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,526,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position 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 valued at $56,455,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,054,343 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Visa by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,042,586 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,411,395,000 after buying an additional 388,996 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in Visa by 0.8% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 24,792,246 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,463,484,000 after buying an additional 193,288 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $5,877,738,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in Visa by 4.2% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 13,114,674 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,475,403,000 after buying an additional 530,995 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa is testing private stablecoin settlement with Brale on the Canton Network, a proof of concept aimed at enabling institutional payments with more privacy and efficiency. Investors may see this as evidence that Visa is expanding its payments infrastructure into a potentially high-growth use case. Article: Visa tests private stablecoin settlement with Brale, Canton
• Positive Sentiment: Visa’s new partnership with Brale reinforces its stablecoin strategy and suggests the company is actively building tools for institutional blockchain settlement, which could strengthen long-term growth prospects. Article: How Visa Advances Stablecoin Payment Vision With Brale Partnership?
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and others are collaborating on a new stablecoin platform suggest major payments players are validating the opportunity, which may help Visa if the initiative gains merchant traction. Article: Visa Mastercard Stablecoin Push Tests Circle USDC And Rich Valuation
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa also announced leadership appointments in Asia Pacific to support value-added services and Southeast Asia growth, a positive operating update but likely not a major near-term stock driver. Article: Visa Announces Asia Pacific Leadership Appointments to Scale Value-Added Services and Southeast Asia Growth
• Negative Sentiment: News that Visa and Mastercard payments are being halted in Cuba adds a small regional headwind, though the revenue impact is likely limited compared with Visa’s overall global business. Article: Visa, Mastercard payments to be halted in Cuba amid new US sanctions

Visa Trading Up 1.2%

NYSE:V opened at $324.03 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $581.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.23, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $293.89 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The business has a fifty day moving average of $316.53 and a 200-day moving average of $324.49.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The company’s revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.76 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 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. Shareholders 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 payout ratio is 23.34%.

Visa declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 28th that permits the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the credit-card processor to purchase up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $415.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Truist Financial set a $371.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $387.78.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.62, for a total value of $201,253.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,679 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $829,471.98. This represents a 19.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, 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 transaction, the chief financial officer owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at $3,206,524.32. This represents a 51.87% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders sold 42,744 shares of company stock valued at $14,356,010. Company 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.