Visa Inc. $V Stock Position Cut by Epoch Investment Partners Inc.

Key Points

• Epoch Investment Partners Inc. has reduced its stake in Visa Inc. by 31.8%, lowering its shareholding to approximately 757,597 shares, representing about 1.4% of its total holdings.
• Visa reported a 14.3% increase in year-over-year revenue with earnings per share of $2.98, exceeding analysts' expectations for the quarter.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59, with an annualized yield of 0.7% and a payout ratio of 23.05% as of the latest financial disclosure.

Epoch Investment Partners Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 31.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 757,597 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 352,628 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 1.4% of Epoch Investment Partners Inc.'s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Epoch Investment Partners Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $265,507,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Visa by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.0% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $6,654,189,000 after acquiring an additional 726,299 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings 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 valued at $5,173,271,000 after buying an additional 14,723,050 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in Visa by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 13,321,754 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $4,210,207,000 after acquiring an additional 1,723,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 12,796,415 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $4,045,149,000 after purchasing an additional 164,008 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the business'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 transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,904,875. The trade was a 30.58% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 77,127 shares of company stock valued at $28,340,553 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of NYSE V traded down $0.25 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $350.10. The company had a trading volume of 4,987,056 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,288,815. The stock has a market cap of $641.65 billion, a PE ratio of 31.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $268.23 and a one year high of $375.51. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $347.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $347.44. 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 results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The business had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.42 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be issued 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 is Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 23.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup initiated coverage on Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. UBS Group reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $415.00 price target (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price target on Visa from $383.00 to $384.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $380.84.

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.