Blacksheep Fund Management Ltd Purchases 52,460 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Blacksheep Fund Management Ltd more than doubled its Visa stake in Q1, buying an additional 52,460 shares and bringing its total to 100,710 shares worth about $30.4 million.
• Visa continues to draw broad analyst support, with multiple firms raising targets and the stock carrying a consensus Buy rating and average price target of $398.36.
• The company posted strong quarterly results and also returned capital through a 0.8% dividend yield and a new $20 billion share buyback authorization.

Blacksheep Fund Management Ltd lifted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 108.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 100,710 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 52,460 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 12.3% of Blacksheep Fund Management Ltd's holdings, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Blacksheep Fund Management Ltd's holdings in Visa were worth $30,439,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position 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 period. State Street Corp raised its position in Visa by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 82,798,151 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $29,038,140,000 after buying an additional 626,821 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Visa by 0.9% during the fourth 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 buying an additional 388,996 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted 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 in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on V. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $403.00 target price (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Visa from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. Robert W. Baird set a $412.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $387.00 price objective (up from $375.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $398.36.

Visa Price Performance

V opened at $355.94 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $638.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.00, a PEG ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.75. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $293.89 and a 1 year high of $365.14. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $335.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $325.08.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.75 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 13.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 12th. Visa's payout ratio is currently 23.34%.

Visa declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit-card processor to reacquire up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total value of $3,455,653.59. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 9,872 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,206,524.32. The trade was a 51.87% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total value of $729,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 18,404 shares in the company, valued at $6,625,440. This represents a 9.92% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders sold 75,581 shares of company stock valued at $25,627,975. 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.

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