Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC

Key Points

• Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC reduced its Visa stake by 22.4% in the first quarter, selling 6,188 shares and leaving it with 21,417 shares valued at about $6.47 million.
• Visa continues to draw strong institutional and analyst support. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the stock, and analysts currently rate Visa a “Buy” on average with a consensus price target of $387.78.
• The company reported solid quarterly results and returned capital to shareholders. Visa beat earnings and revenue estimates, raised attention with a new $20 billion share repurchase authorization, and paid a quarterly dividend of $0.67 per share.

Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC cut its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 22.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 21,417 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 6,188 shares during the quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $6,473,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,877,738,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 867.6% during the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 8,213,610 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $2,880,595,000 after purchasing an additional 7,364,762 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP raised its stake in shares of Visa by 12,497.1% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 3,378,039 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,184,712,000 after purchasing an additional 3,351,223 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 48.2% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,508,089 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,282,472,000 after purchasing an additional 2,116,463 shares during the period. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 110.4% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,954,937 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,396,930,000 after purchasing an additional 2,075,289 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Visa from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $450.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. UBS Group boosted their target price on Visa from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $403.00 target price (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $387.78.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total value of $3,455,653.59. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 9,872 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,206,524.32. This trade represents a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total value of $10,699,103.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at $5,161,284.36. This represents a 67.46% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Up 1.9%

V stock opened at $336.96 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $293.89 and a 52-week high of $359.66. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $323.36 and its 200-day simple moving average is $324.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $604.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.77.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 in the prior year, the firm earned $2.76 EPS. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Visa declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the credit-card processor to reacquire up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Key Headlines Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa launched Visa Destinations, a global travel platform now live in 10 major markets, designed to engage cardholders earlier in the travel journey and deepen use of Visa’s network through curated experiences and exclusive access. Visa Redefines Its Role in Travel With the Global Launch of Visa Destinations
• Positive Sentiment: Visa expanded Visa Cloud Connect with Mintoak and Thredd in Asia Pacific, which could help fintechs and banks issue cards faster and broaden Visa’s reach in merchant SaaS and cloud-based issuing. Visa (V), Mintoak Partner to Expand Merchant SaaS Offerings Across Asia Pacific
• Positive Sentiment: Analysts are highlighting Visa’s new travel push and international expansion efforts as potential future growth drivers, reinforcing the view that Visa can keep monetizing cross-border spending and travel-related activity. Can Visa's New Travel Play Become Its Next Growth Driver?
• Neutral Sentiment: Several recent write-ups on Visa’s travel and partner initiatives are largely descriptive, but they underscore investor focus on whether these new products can meaningfully add to growth over time. Visa Explores Travel Planning Space With Visa Destinations
• Neutral Sentiment: One opinion piece argued Visa could be vulnerable to payment disruption, but it did not include new fundamental data and appears to be more of a long-term risk discussion than a near-term catalyst. Visa: May Be Next On The Disruption Hit List

About Visa

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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