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Visa Inc. $V Stake Lifted by Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership

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Key Points

  • Arrowstreet Capital boosted its Visa stake by 116.5% in the fourth quarter, ending with 1.97 million shares worth about $689.5 million.
  • Institutional ownership in Visa remains very high at 82.15%, with other large holders like Vanguard and PNC also adding to their positions.
  • Analysts remain broadly bullish: Visa has a consensus Buy rating and a target price of $387.78, while the company also recently beat quarterly earnings expectations and authorized a $20 billion share buyback.
  • MarketBeat previews the top five stocks to own by July 1st.

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 116.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,966,045 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 1,058,052 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership owned approximately 0.11% of Visa worth $689,512,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Invariant Investment Management acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $969,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 valued at $56,455,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,054,343 shares during the last quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd lifted its stake 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 valued at $180,088,000 after purchasing an additional 23,863 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 2.1% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,884,879 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $984,840,000 after purchasing an additional 60,198 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Savvy Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Visa by 30.1% in the 4th quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 28,922 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $10,143,000 after acquiring an additional 6,688 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price target for the company. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Visa from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. BMO Capital Markets assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. They issued an "outperform" rating and a $365.00 price target for the company. Evercore set a $350.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $389.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $387.78.

Get Our Latest Analysis on Visa

More Visa News

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

Visa Stock Up 0.9%

Visa stock opened at $321.98 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $577.55 billion, a PE ratio of 28.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 0.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $318.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $324.40. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $293.89 and a twelve month high of $363.01.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.76 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Visa declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit-card processor to reacquire up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 approximately $5,161,284.36. This represents a 67.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total transaction of $3,455,653.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,206,524.32. This represents a 51.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Visa

(Free Report)

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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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Visa (NYSE:V)

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.

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