BNP Paribas Raises Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• BNP Paribas increased its Visa stake by 8% in the fourth quarter, buying 13,234 more shares and bringing its total holding to 178,748 shares worth about $62.8 million. Visa is now BNP Paribas’ 11th largest position and makes up roughly 1.8% of its portfolio.
• Wall Street remains broadly bullish on Visa, with analysts maintaining mostly Buy/Strong Buy ratings and a consensus price target of $386.70. Recent notes included higher targets from UBS and Oppenheimer.
• Visa reported strong quarterly results and reinforced shareholder returns, posting earnings and revenue above expectations, paying a quarterly dividend, and authorizing a $20 billion share repurchase program. The company also saw notable insider selling, including shares sold by CEO Ryan McInerney.

BNP Paribas boosted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 8.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 178,748 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 13,234 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 1.8% of BNP Paribas' holdings, making the stock its 11th biggest position. BNP Paribas' holdings in Visa were worth $62,792,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Invariant Investment Management purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $969,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 11.3% during the 3rd quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 2,352,766 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $803,187,000 after acquiring an additional 238,872 shares during the period. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd grew its stake in shares of Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 527,530 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $180,088,000 after acquiring an additional 23,863 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,884,879 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $984,840,000 after acquiring an additional 60,198 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $403.00 price objective (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Evercore set a $350.00 price objective on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. UBS Group upped their price target on Visa from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Truist Financial set a $371.00 price target on Visa and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Finally, Freedom Capital upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Monday, February 16th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $386.70.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $322.57 on Tuesday. The stock's fifty day moving average is $315.33 and its 200 day moving average is $324.87. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $293.89 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $578.62 billion, a PE ratio of 28.10, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.78. 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 (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.34%.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.62, for a total transaction of $201,253.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,679 shares in the company, valued at approximately $829,471.98. This trade represents a 19.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total value of $10,699,103.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,284.36. This represents a 67.46% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 42,744 shares of company stock worth $14,356,010 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company's stock.

Key Visa News

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa’s long-term business model remains strong because it earns a fee on a huge share of global digital transactions, making it a durable “buy and hold forever” candidate for investors focused on secular growth. American Express vs. Visa: 2 Different Ways to Bet on Premium Consumer Spending
• Positive Sentiment: Market commentators say Visa now screens attractively after a year of weaker performance, suggesting the selloff may have reset the valuation on this high-quality payments franchise. Visa at $326, Mastercard at $493: Buy, Sell or Hold?
• Positive Sentiment: Visa’s recent investment in Replit and its work on AI-driven commerce could help position the company for future payment flows beyond traditional card swipes and tap-to-pay transactions. Visa’s Replit Investment Links AI Agents To Future Commerce Growth
• Neutral Sentiment: Several analyst-focused articles and comparisons with Mastercard and American Express are keeping Visa in the spotlight, but they mainly reinforce the debate over whether the stock is a buy, hold, or relative value play rather than pointing to a clear catalyst.
• Negative Sentiment: Investors remain concerned that stablecoin adoption and interchange-related legal pressure could threaten Visa’s long-term economics, contributing to the stock’s recent underperformance versus the broader market. Visa at $326, Mastercard at $493: Buy, Sell or Hold?
• Negative Sentiment: One recent market view argues Visa may trail the equity market going forward, reflecting skepticism that the stock will quickly regain leadership after its recent slump. Visa: Why Trailing The Equity Market Seems The Most Likely Scenario Ahead

Visa 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.