Associated Banc Corp Increases Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Key Points

• Associated Banc Corp has increased its holdings in Visa Inc. by 8.1%, owning a total value of $4.76 million as of the latest SEC filing.
• Insider sales included CEO Ryan Mcinerney, who sold 8,630 shares valued at over $3 million, leading to a significant decrease in his ownership stake.
• Analysts have raised their target prices for Visa, with Mizuho upgrading the rating and increasing the target price from $359 to $425, indicating a strong outlook for the company's stock.

Associated Banc Corp boosted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 8.1% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 13,588 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 1,020 shares during the quarter. Associated Banc Corp's holdings in Visa were worth $4,762,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 38,416.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,173,271,000 after acquiring an additional 14,723,050 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Visa by 18.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,771,116,000 after buying an additional 2,785,707 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $673,689,000. Sanders Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $623,022,000. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 295.4% in the fourth quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 2,362,202 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $746,550,000 after acquiring an additional 1,764,781 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Macquarie upped their price target on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $380.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 46,214 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.00, for a total transaction of $17,099,180.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,772,810. This trade represents a 63.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 75,100 shares of company stock worth $27,643,224. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Down 2.3%

Shares of V stock traded down $7.76 during trading on Thursday, reaching $331.98. The company's stock had a trading volume of 8,793,604 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,237,998. The company has a market capitalization of $612.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $257.92 and a 1-year high of $375.51. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $353.36 and its 200 day moving average price is $346.87.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.05%.

Visa Company Profile

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.