GFS Advisors LLC Takes Position in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• GFS Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa Inc., purchasing 5,094 shares valued at approximately $1.8 million during the second quarter.
• Institutional investors hold 82.15% of Visa's stock, with notable modifications from major firms like Nuveen LLC and Vanguard Group, which increased their holdings significantly in the first quarter.
• Visa reported a 14.3% year-over-year revenue increase for its latest quarter, achieving $10.17 billion, surpassing analyst expectations with earnings per share of $2.98.

GFS Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 5,094 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $1,809,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of V. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter valued at about $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Visa by 17.7% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,847,953,000 after buying an additional 1,651,954 shares during the last quarter. MUFG Securities EMEA plc purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $373,240,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in Visa by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,003,569,000 after purchasing an additional 955,392 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total value of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,815.10. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Erste Group Bank cut shares of Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price objective for the company. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $389.00.

Visa Trading Down 0.7%

V opened at $345.81 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $278.35 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $344.14 and a 200-day simple moving average of $346.97. The firm has a market cap of $633.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.90. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The business had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.42 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.05%.

About Visa

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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