Visa Inc. $V Stock Position Raised by Groupe la Francaise

Key Points

• Groupe la Francaise increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 35%, acquiring an additional 79,093 shares, bringing its total ownership to 305,233 shares valued at approximately $106 million.
• Visa reported earnings of $2.98 per share for the last quarter, surpassing estimates and showing a 14.3% year-over-year revenue increase.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share to be paid on September 2nd, reflecting a dividend yield of 0.7%.

Groupe la Francaise increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 35.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 305,233 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 79,093 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 2.2% of Groupe la Francaise's portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Groupe la Francaise's holdings in Visa were worth $106,107,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Keystone Global Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the first quarter valued at about $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the first quarter valued at about $27,000. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $47,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the first quarter valued at about $54,000. Finally, Global X Japan Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Visa during the first quarter valued at about $56,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on V. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $383.00 to $384.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Mizuho raised shares of Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $380.84.

Visa Price Performance

V traded up $5.6280 during trading on Friday, reaching $349.3180. 4,972,225 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,490,094. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $265.31 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $347.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $347.39. The company has a market cap of $640.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.11, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.42 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is 23.05%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total value of $4,363,500.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,904,875. This represents a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 77,127 shares of company stock worth $28,340,553 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.