Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. Reduces Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. reduced its Visa stake by 30% in the first quarter, selling 11,894 shares and leaving it with 27,723 shares valued at about $8.38 million.
• Visa’s latest quarter beat expectations, with EPS of $3.31 versus $3.10 expected and revenue of $11.23 billion, up 17.1% year over year. The company also pays a quarterly dividend of $0.67 and recently authorized a $20 billion share buyback.
• Analysts remain bullish, with several firms issuing buy or overweight ratings and a consensus target price of $398.36. The article also highlights Visa’s push into stablecoins and AI/machine-to-machine payments as potential long-term growth drivers.

Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. cut its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 30.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 27,723 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 11,894 shares during the quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $8,379,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of V. Invariant Investment Management bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $969,000. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. raised its position in shares of Visa by 58.1% in the 1st quarter. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. now owns 4,201 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,270,000 after acquiring an additional 1,543 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the 4th 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 during the period. Savvy Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Visa by 30.1% in the fourth quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 28,922 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $10,143,000 after purchasing an additional 6,688 shares during the period. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $15,966,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa launched its Stablecoin Platform, an enterprise tool for banks, fintechs, and crypto-native firms to mint, move, store, and redeem stablecoins in one Visa-managed environment. Investors may view this as a meaningful new growth avenue that could expand Visa’s role in blockchain-based payments. Visa Introduces Platform for Stablecoin Minting, Movement and Management
• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Visa joined Google and Stripe in the x402 Foundation, which is building an open standard for machine-to-machine and AI agent payments. That supports Visa’s long-term relevance in emerging micro-payment and autonomous commerce use cases. Google and Visa join the online micro-payments revolution
• Positive Sentiment: Visa and Artemis highlighted that stablecoins could become key infrastructure for AI agent micropayments, reinforcing the idea that Visa is positioning itself early in a potentially large new payment category. Stablecoins Emerge as Key Infrastructure for AI Agent Micropayments, Visa and Artemis Report
• Positive Sentiment: Hong Leong Bank launched Malaysia’s first Visa Infinite Privilege card, showing continued strength in Visa’s premium product lineup and international card issuance. Hong Leong Bank Debuts Malaysia's First Visa Infinite Privilege Card
• Positive Sentiment: Visa was also upgraded to “strong-buy” by an analyst source, adding to bullish sentiment around the stock. Visa upgraded by Clear Str Llc to strong-buy
• Neutral Sentiment: Several articles discuss Visa’s new AI assistants, agentic payments pilots, and refreshed Visa Infinite offerings in Asia-Pacific. These developments are constructive, but they are mostly early-stage or product refreshes rather than immediate financial catalysts. What Visa (V)'s New AI Assistants and Agentic Payments Mean For Shareholders

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Truist Financial set a $371.00 price target on shares of Visa and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $400.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Barclays started coverage on Visa in a research report on Tuesday, July 7th. They issued an "overweight" rating and a $420.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $403.00 price target (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $398.36.

Visa Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $358.51 on Monday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $334.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $324.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $643.08 billion, a PE ratio of 31.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.75. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $293.89 and a 52-week high of $365.14. 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 (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The firm had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $10.75 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.76 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 13.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.34%.

Visa announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the credit-card processor to purchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total value of $729,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 18,404 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $6,625,440. The trade was a 9.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total transaction of $10,699,103.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,284.36. The trade was a 67.46% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 75,581 shares of company stock worth $25,627,975 over the last quarter. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Company 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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