Independence Wealth Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Independence Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position of 3,463 shares of Visa in Q4 worth approximately $1.215 million, representing about 0.7% of the firm's holdings and its 29th-largest position.
• Major institutions have been increasing exposure—Norges Bank initiated a roughly $7.03 billion stake and other funds (TCI, Holocene, Danske) added large positions—leaving institutional investors with about 82.15% ownership of Visa.
• Analysts rate Visa a consensus "Buy" with a $392.65 average price target; the company recently beat quarterly EPS and revenue estimates (EPS $3.17 vs. $3.14; revenue $10.90B, +14.6% YoY) and pays a quarterly dividend of $0.67 (≈0.9% yield).

Independence Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 3,463 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $1,215,000. Visa makes up about 0.7% of Independence Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest position.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Visa in the 2nd quarter worth about $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in Visa by 14.6% in the 2nd quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $6,769,936,000 after purchasing an additional 2,429,996 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 110.4% in the 2nd quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,954,937 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,396,930,000 after purchasing an additional 2,075,289 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Visa by 286.4% during the 3rd quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 2,526,026 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $862,335,000 after purchasing an additional 1,872,362 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Danske Bank A S bought a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $565,684,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Macquarie Infrastructure reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $410.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 30th. TD Cowen reissued a "buy" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $411.00 price objective (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 30th. Evercore set a $380.00 target price on Visa in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Freedom Capital raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, February 16th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $392.65.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total value of $3,661,152.30. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,401 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,282,641.18. This trade represents a 52.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.62, for a total value of $201,253.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,679 shares in the company, valued at approximately $829,471.98. This represents a 19.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $304.08 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company has a market cap of $551.96 billion, a PE ratio of 28.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a 50 day moving average of $319.26 and a 200-day moving average of $333.66. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $297.03 and a 1-year high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.14 by $0.03. Visa had a net margin of 50.23% and a return on equity of 61.74%. The business had revenue of $10.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.69 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.75 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 14.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 10th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 10th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 25.14%.

About Visa

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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