Korea Investment CORP Trims Position in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Korea Investment CORP trimmed its Visa stake by 4.0% in the fourth quarter, selling 49,575 shares and leaving it with 1,182,932 shares valued at about $414.9 million.
• Institutional ownership remains high, with hedge funds and other institutional investors holding about 82.15% of Visa shares. Several smaller funds also recently increased their positions, even as some investors reduced exposure.
• Visa continues to draw bullish analyst support and recent business momentum: it beat quarterly earnings and revenue estimates, raised a quarterly dividend, and authorized a $20 billion share repurchase program.

Korea Investment CORP lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 4.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,182,932 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 49,575 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 0.8% of Korea Investment CORP's portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest position. Korea Investment CORP owned 0.07% of Visa worth $414,866,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Clayton Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Visa by 446.2% in the 4th quarter. Clayton Financial Group LLC now owns 71 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. PayPay Securities Corp increased its stake in Visa by 102.7% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the period. Cresta Advisors Ltd. purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Parvin Asset Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 200.0% during the 3rd quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Dorato Capital Management purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Key Stories Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa unveiled a major partnership with OpenAI to embed its payment network into ChatGPT, allowing AI agents to shop and complete purchases with user permission. This positions Visa to stay central to the next phase of digital commerce and could open a new payment channel. Visa Partners with OpenAI to Power the Next Generation of AI Commerce
• Positive Sentiment: Visa also announced new AI, tokenization, and stablecoin settlement tools for programmable commerce, signaling that management is investing to defend its competitive moat and adapt to faster-moving payment rails. Visa Launches AI and Stablecoin Tools to Power Agentic Commerce
• Positive Sentiment: Several recent commentary pieces highlight Visa’s earnings growth, balance-sheet strength, and its expanding role in AI-driven commerce, which may be reinforcing investor confidence in the stock. Earnings Growth & Price Strength Make Visa (V) a Stock to Watch
• Neutral Sentiment: One report noted that Cuba’s central bank will suspend all Visa and Mastercard transactions after a processing partnership collapsed due to U.S. sanctions. The direct financial impact appears limited, but it is a reminder of Visa’s exposure to geopolitical and sanctions-related disruptions. Cuba’s Central Bank to Suspend all Visa (V) and Mastercard Transactions
• Negative Sentiment: Investor concern also surfaced around stablecoins, with Bill Gurley saying Visa and Mastercard are “heavily threatened” by them. That reinforces the market’s view that next-generation payment technologies could pressure long-term card network economics if adoption accelerates. Bill Gurley says Visa, and Mastercard are “heavily threatened” by stablecoins

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on V. Freedom Capital raised shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, February 16th. Morgan Stanley reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $415.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. They set a "buy" rating and a $410.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $389.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $387.78.

Visa Stock Up 0.9%

NYSE:V opened at $321.98 on Friday. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $318.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $324.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $577.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $293.89 and a fifty-two week high of $363.01.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $10.75 billion. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. Visa's revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Visa announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, April 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the credit-card processor to repurchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at $3,206,524.32. This trade represents a 51.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,284.36. This trade represents a 67.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.12% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.