Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC Purchases 12,731 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 1.5%, acquiring an additional 12,731 shares during the second quarter, bringing its total holdings to 837,218 shares valued at $297.6 million.
• Visa reported earnings per share of $2.98 for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, with revenues of $10.17 billion, reflecting a 14.3% year-over-year increase.
• Several analysts upgraded Visa's stock ratings, with UBS Group raising its target price to $415.00 and Macquarie increasing it to $425.00, indicating strong investor confidence in the firm.

Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 837,218 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 12,731 shares during the quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $297,606,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in V. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 17.7% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,847,953,000 after purchasing an additional 1,651,954 shares during the last quarter. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $373,240,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,003,569,000 after purchasing an additional 955,392 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $415.00 target price (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b)" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Macquarie increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $389.00.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $335.01 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $280.78 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The company has a market cap of $614.00 billion, a PE ratio of 32.72, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.90. The company's 50-day moving average is $344.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.87.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.42 EPS. The company's revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total value of $3,589,015.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,815.10. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

About Visa

Visa Inc operates as a payment technology company in the United States and internationally. The company operates VisaNet, a transaction processing network that enables authorization, clearing, and settlement of payment transactions. It also offers credit, debit, and prepaid card products; tap to pay, tokenization, and click to pay services; Visa Direct, a solution that facilitates the delivery of funds to eligible cards, deposit accounts, and digital wallets; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral business-to-business cross-border payments network; Visa Cross-Border Solution, a cross-border consumer payments solution; and Visa DPS that provides a range of value-added services, including fraud mitigation, dispute management, data analytics, campaign management, a suite of digital solutions, and contact center services.

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