Panagora Asset Management Inc. Has $330.69 Million Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Visa Inc. by 8.5%, acquiring an additional 73,871 shares in the first quarter, bringing its total to 943,600 shares.
• Several analysts have upgraded their ratings on Visa, with Barclays raising its price target to $408.00 and Mizuho increasing theirs to $425.00.
• Visa recently reported earnings of $2.98 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, and declared a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, reflecting a yield of 0.7%.

Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 8.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 943,600 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 73,871 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 1.7% of Panagora Asset Management Inc.'s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Panagora Asset Management Inc. owned 0.05% of Visa worth $330,694,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 5.7% during the first quarter. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $528,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund boosted its stake in Visa by 14.5% during the first quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $159,523,000 after buying an additional 57,800 shares during the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 19.8% during the fourth quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 182,658 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $57,727,000 after buying an additional 30,185 shares during the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC raised its position in Visa by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 610,517 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $192,948,000 after purchasing an additional 43,546 shares during the period. Finally, FJ Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $283,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on V shares. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $415.00 price objective (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Truist Financial cut their price target on Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "neutral" rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $380.84.

Visa Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NYSE V traded up $2.06 during trading on Friday, hitting $351.92. 3,670,969 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,856,767. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $268.23 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $348.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $347.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $645.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.42 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is 23.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total transaction of $4,363,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,904,875. This trade represents a 30.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 77,127 shares of company stock valued at $28,340,553. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Company Profile

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.