Costello Asset Management INC Boosts Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Costello Asset Management increased its Visa stake by 15.6% in the fourth quarter, adding 3,384 shares to bring its total to 25,088 shares worth about $8.8 million.
• Visa continues to attract strong analyst support, with multiple firms reiterating or upgrading ratings and a consensus Buy rating alongside a $387.25 average price target.
• The company reported solid quarterly results, beating earnings and revenue expectations, and also announced a $20 billion share buyback plus a quarterly dividend of $0.67 per share.

Costello Asset Management INC lifted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 15.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 25,088 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 3,384 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises 2.9% of Costello Asset Management INC's holdings, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Costello Asset Management INC's holdings in Visa were worth $8,798,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Clayton Financial Group LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 446.2% during the 4th quarter. Clayton Financial Group LLC now owns 71 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. PayPay Securities Corp increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 102.7% during the fourth quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares during the period. Cresta Advisors Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Parvin Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 200.0% in the third quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dorato Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $400.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Freedom Capital upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, February 16th. Macquarie Infrastructure reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $410.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 30th. Truist Financial decreased their price target on Visa from $372.00 to $361.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $395.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $387.25.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.62, for a total transaction of $201,253.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,679 shares in the company, valued at $829,471.98. This trade represents a 19.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total value of $10,699,103.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,284.36. This represents a 67.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Trading Down 0.8%

NYSE V opened at $318.66 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $578.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.78. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $293.89 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The business's fifty day moving average is $310.67 and its 200 day moving average is $326.72.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share (EPS) 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $10.75 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.76 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 13.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.34%.

Visa declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, April 28th that permits the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the credit-card processor to reacquire up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Key Headlines Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa just reported its strongest revenue growth since 2022, reinforcing that consumer and cross-border spending trends remain healthy and supporting the case that the stock deserves a premium valuation. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple brokerages, including Erste Group Bank and Zacks Research, raised Visa earnings estimates for FY2026, FY2027, and FY2028, signaling confidence that profit growth can stay strong over the next several years.
• Positive Sentiment: Visa is also advancing its stablecoin strategy, including pilot projects tied to settlement and payment rails, which may strengthen its role in next-generation digital payments. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: News that Exodus launched an AI-agent focused stablecoin on Solana using Visa payment rails highlights growing third-party use cases for Visa’s network in emerging fintech and AI-driven payments. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage around card-issuing and processing solutions, as well as travel-credit-card rankings, is supportive of the broader payments ecosystem but does not materially change Visa’s near-term earnings outlook. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: One analyst note trimmed a few near-term quarterly EPS estimates, which could temper expectations for some upcoming periods even though the longer-term forecast trend remains positive.

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.