Ashton Thomas Securities LLC Buys New Position in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Ashton Thomas Securities LLC initiated a Visa position of 29,767 shares valued at approximately $9 million, making Visa 1.1% of its portfolio. Institutional investors collectively own 82.15% of Visa.
• Visa reported quarterly adjusted EPS of $3.32 and revenue of $11.63 billion, beating estimates while revenue grew 14.4% year over year. Analysts maintain a broadly positive view, with a consensus “Buy” rating and an average price target of $411.
• Visa declared a $0.67 quarterly dividend and authorized a $20 billion share-repurchase program, although planned workforce reductions, margin concerns and the stock’s premium valuation remain potential risks.

Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 29,767 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $8,998,000. Visa makes up approximately 1.1% of Ashton Thomas Securities LLC's portfolio, making the stock its 18th biggest position.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings 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 worth $56,455,834,000 after buying an additional 1,054,343 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 82,798,151 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $29,038,140,000 after acquiring an additional 626,821 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,042,586 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $15,411,395,000 after acquiring an additional 388,996 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in Visa by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 41,092,294 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $14,411,480,000 after acquiring an additional 716,218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Visa by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 23,835,336 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $8,359,291,000 after acquiring an additional 398,459 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

More Visa News

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Results exceeded expectations: Visa reported adjusted earnings of $3.32 per share versus the $3.23 consensus and revenue of $11.63 billion, up 14.4% year over year. Payments volume surpassed $4 trillion, while cross-border activity, processed transactions and resilient consumer spending supported double-digit growth. Visa Q3 Earnings Beat Estimates on Cross-Border Volume Strength
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts raised price targets: JPMorgan increased its target to $450, Baird to $420, BMO to $405 and Cantor Fitzgerald maintained an overweight rating with a $410 target. The revisions reflect confidence in Visa’s fundamentals and continued payment growth. Visa Analyst Forecasts
• Positive Sentiment: Growth initiatives remain active: Management highlighted AI-enabled commerce, stablecoin settlement, Visa Direct, commercial payments and value-added services as longer-term growth opportunities. The launch of X Money with a Visa-branded debit card could provide additional network activity. Visa Outlines Stablecoin Strategy
• Positive Sentiment: Shareholder return: Visa declared a quarterly dividend of $0.67 per share, payable September 1 to shareholders of record August 11. Visa Dividend Announcement
• Neutral Sentiment: Workforce restructuring: Visa plans to eliminate approximately 2,600 jobs, or 7% of its workforce, mainly in technology and product operations. The cuts may reduce costs and fund AI, stablecoin and B2B investments, but also signal a significant organizational transition. Visa Slashes Thousands of Jobs
• Negative Sentiment: Margin and valuation concerns: Shares faced pressure after the earnings release as investors focused on higher operating expenses and potential margin compression. Some analysts also view Visa’s premium valuation—roughly 26 times forward earnings—as limiting near-term upside. Visa Stock and Margin Concerns
• Negative Sentiment: Market backdrop: A sharp oil-price increase tied to escalating U.S.-Iran tensions and uncertainty ahead of the Federal Reserve’s rate decision pressured major equity indexes, creating a broader headwind for Visa’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $412.00 target price (up from $395.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Visa from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Visa to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $412.00 to $420.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $430.00 price objective (up from $394.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty-three have given a Buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $411.00.

Visa Stock Up 0.8%

Shares of V opened at $369.69 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $293.89 and a 12 month high of $373.97. The stock's 50 day moving average is $339.67 and its two-hundred day moving average is $325.38. The firm has a market cap of $663.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.44, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.75.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.23 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $11.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.40 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 66.68% and a net margin of 50.78%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.98 EPS. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 13.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 11th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. 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 repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the credit-card processor to repurchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 20,970 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.25, for a total transaction of $7,135,042.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at $5,162,953.50. This represents a 58.02% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at 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 firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at $3,206,524.32. This represents a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 44,126 shares of company stock worth $14,928,871 in the last 90 days. 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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