Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Bellwether Advisors LLC

Key Points

• Bellwether Advisors LLC sharply reduced its Visa stake in the fourth quarter, selling 5,998 shares and cutting its position by 85.9% to 988 shares worth about $347,000.
• Visa continues to get mostly positive Wall Street coverage, with analysts assigning a consensus “Buy” rating and a consensus price target of $386.70; recent targets ranged from $350 to $415.
• The company reported strong quarterly results and returned cash to shareholders, posting EPS of $3.31 on revenue of $11.23 billion, while also announcing a $0.67 quarterly dividend and a new $20 billion share buyback program.

Bellwether Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 85.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 988 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 5,998 shares during the period. Bellwether Advisors LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $347,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Invariant Investment Management purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $969,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $56,455,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,054,343 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 24.1% during the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 823,262 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $281,045,000 after purchasing an additional 159,906 shares in the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. boosted its position in Visa by 11.3% during the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 2,352,766 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $803,187,000 after purchasing an additional 238,872 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd boosted its position in Visa by 4.7% during the third quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 527,530 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $180,088,000 after purchasing an additional 23,863 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on V. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $385.00 target price on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $415.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Freedom Capital upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, February 16th. BMO Capital Markets began coverage on Visa in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. They set an "outperform" rating and a $365.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Evercore set a $350.00 target price on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $386.70.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $327.17 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $586.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.50, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 0.78. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $313.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $325.17. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $293.89 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its 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. The firm had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 51.68%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 23.34%.

Visa announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, April 28th that permits the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the credit-card processor to repurchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $309.62, for a total transaction of $201,253.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,679 shares in the company, valued at $829,471.98. This represents a 19.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total value of $10,699,103.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,161,284.36. This represents a 67.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 42,744 shares of company stock worth $14,356,010 over the last three months. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Company Profile

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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