Meridian Wealth Management LLC Acquires 3,739 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Key Points

• Meridian Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Visa Inc. by 17.1% during the first quarter, owning a total of 25,602 shares valued at approximately $8.97 million.
• Institutional investors own 82.15% of Visa's stock, with several hedge funds, including Vanguard Group and GAMMA Investing LLC, significantly increasing their stakes in the company.
• Visa recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, amounting to an annualized dividend yield of 0.7% and a payout ratio of 23.05%.

Meridian Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 17.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,602 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 3,739 shares during the quarter. Meridian Wealth Management LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $8,972,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of V. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $56,452,949,000 after acquiring an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in Visa by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $7,526,660,000 after acquiring an additional 866,596 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $7,356,614,000 after acquiring an additional 241,057 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Visa by 18.0% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,771,116,000 after acquiring an additional 2,785,707 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 38,416.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,173,271,000 after acquiring an additional 14,723,050 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on V. Macquarie lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Truist Financial reduced their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $380.84.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 46,214 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.00, for a total value of $17,099,180.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,772,810. The trade was a 63.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the business'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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 75,100 shares of company stock worth $27,643,224. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $336.86 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $617.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.90, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $258.74 and a 1-year high of $375.51. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $352.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $347.26. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.42 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's payout ratio is currently 23.05%.

About Visa

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.

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