Manning & Napier Advisors LLC Grows Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Manning & Napier Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 22.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 639,378 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 115,699 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 2.7% of Manning & Napier Advisors LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Manning & Napier Advisors LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $193,246,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position 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. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Visa by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 82,798,151 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $29,038,140,000 after buying an additional 626,821 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,042,586 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $15,411,395,000 after buying an additional 388,996 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Visa by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 41,092,294 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $14,411,480,000 after buying an additional 716,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 23,835,336 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $8,359,291,000 after buying an additional 398,459 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of several research reports. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Truist Financial set a $371.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. Citigroup lowered their target price on Visa from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Weiss Ratings raised Visa from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Evercore set a $350.00 price target on Visa in a report 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $397.91.

Visa Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of V stock traded up $0.85 during trading on Friday, reaching $349.05. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,701,656 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,985,494. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $330.81 and a 200-day moving average price of $325.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The company has a market cap of $626.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.75. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $293.89 and a one year high of $365.02.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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 net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The business had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.75 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.76 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 13.1 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Visa announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share 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 reacquire up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,284.36. This represents a 67.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total value of $729,720.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 18,404 shares of the company's stock, valued at $6,625,440. This trade represents a 9.92% 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. Insiders sold a total of 75,581 shares of company stock worth $25,627,975 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.12% of the company's stock.

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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