Wormser Freres Gestion Purchases 906 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Wormser Freres Gestion increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 2.6%, making it the firm's largest position valued at approximately $12.37 million.
• Several large investors significantly boosted their holdings in Visa, with Partners Capital Investment Group raising its stake by 92.1% to a value of $11.39 million.
• Visa reported a quarterly EPS of $2.98, exceeding estimates, alongside a revenue of $10.17 billion, reflecting a 14.3% year-over-year growth.

Wormser Freres Gestion raised its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 2.6% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 35,950 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 906 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 7.6% of Wormser Freres Gestion's holdings, making the stock its largest holding. Wormser Freres Gestion's holdings in Visa were worth $12,374,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 5.7% in the first quarter. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $528,000 after buying an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Blue Rock Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $306,000. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund grew its position in shares of Visa by 14.5% in the first quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $159,523,000 after purchasing an additional 57,800 shares during the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 19.8% in the fourth quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 182,658 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $57,727,000 after purchasing an additional 30,185 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Strategies LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC now owns 2,568 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $811,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of V traded up $5.6280 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $349.3180. The company had a trading volume of 4,972,225 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,437,222. The stock has a market cap of $640.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $347.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $347.40. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $265.31 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. Visa's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.42 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.05%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Macquarie increased their price target on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target 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. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $415.00 price target (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $380.84.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 46,214 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.00, for a total transaction of $17,099,180.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,772,810. This trade represents a 63.63% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 77,127 shares of company stock worth $28,340,553 in the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.