Visa Inc. $V Holdings Boosted by Legacy Financial Strategies LLC

Key Points

• Legacy Financial Strategies LLC has increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 114.7% in the 2nd quarter, with holdings valued at $633,000, reflecting significant institutional investor interest.
• Visa reported an EPS of $2.98 for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, and showed a 14.3% year-over-year revenue increase with earnings valued at approximately $10.17 billion.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, yielding 0.7%, with a payout ratio of 23.05%.

Legacy Financial Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 114.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,782 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 952 shares during the quarter. Legacy Financial Strategies LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $633,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake 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 valued at $6,654,189,000 after buying an additional 726,299 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 38,416.3% in the first 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 shares of Visa by 7.2% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,003,569,000 after buying an additional 955,392 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 3.5% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,675,220 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $4,442,157,000 after buying an additional 434,217 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Trading Up 1.2%

Shares of Visa stock traded up $3.89 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $342.07. 13,657,860 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,986,314. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $268.23 and a 52-week high of $375.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $626.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a fifty day moving average of $345.70 and a 200-day moving average of $346.37. 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 released its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.42 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.05%.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating for the company. Mizuho upgraded Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $415.00 target price (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $385.96.

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.