Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co Increases Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co increased its holdings in Visa by 1.9%, acquiring an additional 6,200 shares, bringing its total ownership to 324,160 shares, valued at approximately $113.6 million.
• Visa reported strong quarterly earnings with $2.98 earnings per share and $10.17 billion in revenue, exceeding analyst expectations, and demonstrated a 14.3% increase year-over-year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, reflecting an annualized dividend yield of 0.7% and a payout ratio of 23.05%.

Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co raised its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 1.9% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 324,160 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 6,200 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 1.0% of Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co's investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co's holdings in Visa were worth $113,605,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of V. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. grew its position in Visa by 2.9% during the first quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $360,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Visa by 0.8% during the first quarter. Semus Wealth Partners LLC now owns 3,449 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,209,000 after buying an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Headinvest LLC grew its position in Visa by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Headinvest LLC now owns 4,003 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,265,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank grew its position in Visa by 0.9% during the first quarter. Kennebec Savings Bank now owns 3,372 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,182,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC grew its position in Visa by 0.8% during the first quarter. Capital Advisors Ltd. LLC now owns 3,839 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,345,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

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 transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup began coverage on Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Raymond James Financial reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Mizuho upgraded Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating for the company. Finally, Truist Financial cut their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $385.96.

Visa Trading Up 1.5%

NYSE V traded up $5.16 during trading on Thursday, hitting $343.28. 5,152,779 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,970,029. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $347.41 and a two-hundred day moving average of $347.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $268.23 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The firm has a market cap of $629.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.52, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.92.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

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.