Ethos Financial Group LLC Grows Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Key Points

• Ethos Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 45.2% during the first quarter, owning 7,185 shares valued at approximately $2,350,000.
• Visa reported earnings of $2.98 per share, exceeding estimates by $0.13, and achieved a revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, representing a 14.3% year-over-year growth.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.59, set to be paid on September 2nd, with a yield of 0.7% and a payout ratio of 23.05%.

Ethos Financial Group LLC raised its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 45.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,185 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 2,236 shares during the period. Ethos Financial Group LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $2,350,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $56,452,949,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,088 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $7,356,614,000 after acquiring an additional 241,057 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 18.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,771,116,000 after acquiring an additional 2,785,707 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted 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 worth $5,173,271,000 after acquiring an additional 14,723,050 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 13,321,754 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $4,210,207,000 after acquiring an additional 1,723,785 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $344.44 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $631.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.64, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $350.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $347.41. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $265.23 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.42 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total transaction of $4,363,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,904,875. The trade was a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 75,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,643,224 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Truist Financial dropped their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 target price (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $380.84.

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.

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