IFM Investors Pty Ltd Acquires 10,542 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• IFM Investors increased its Visa stake by 3.2% in the first quarter, buying 10,542 additional shares and bringing its total holdings to 344,496 shares valued at about $104.1 million.
• Several analysts remain bullish on Visa, with recent ratings including strong-buy and multiple buy/outperform calls. The consensus analyst target price is $397.96.
• Visa posted solid quarterly results, beating earnings and revenue estimates, and its board authorized a $20 billion share repurchase program alongside a quarterly dividend of $0.67 per share.

IFM Investors Pty Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 3.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 344,496 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 10,542 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 0.9% of IFM Investors Pty Ltd's portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest position. IFM Investors Pty Ltd's holdings in Visa were worth $104,120,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. Invariant Investment Management bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $969,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.7% during the third quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 527,530 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $180,088,000 after purchasing an additional 23,863 shares in the last quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 30.1% during the fourth quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 28,922 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $10,143,000 after buying an additional 6,688 shares during the period. Finally, Ticino Wealth purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,837,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Piper Sandler upgraded Visa to strong-buy, reinforcing optimism around the company’s earnings power, cross-border payments outlook, and resilient consumer spending trends.
• Positive Sentiment: Visa is being viewed as a key beneficiary of the new Open USD stablecoin initiative, a consortium-backed digital dollar project involving major players such as Stripe, BlackRock, Google, and Coinbase. Investors appear to see this as evidence Visa could remain central to next-generation money movement and settlement infrastructure.
• Positive Sentiment: Market commentary also highlighted Visa’s continued strength in travel, cross-border partnerships, and online spending trends, with Visa saying consumers are still prioritizing discretionary purchases through deal hunting rather than cutting back sharply.
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa’s expanded smartphone-based payment tools for small businesses support its longer-term growth story, but the near-term financial impact looks incremental.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Ryan McInerney sold 20,970 shares in a pre-arranged 10b5-1 transaction, which may create some caution even though the sale was part of a planned trading program.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on V shares. Raymond James Financial restated an "outperform" rating and set a $389.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $450.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Truist Financial set a $371.00 price target on Visa and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Weiss Ratings cut Visa from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Visa in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. They set an "outperform" rating and a $365.00 price objective on the stock. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $397.96.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total value of $3,455,653.59. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,872 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,206,524.32. This represents a 51.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total transaction of $10,699,103.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,284.36. The trade was a 67.46% decrease in their position. 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 63,064 shares of company stock worth $21,289,800. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $351.36 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $325.14 and a two-hundred day moving average of $324.55. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $293.89 and a one year high of $359.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market cap of $630.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.61, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.75.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 period in the prior year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

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

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.

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