WPG Advisers LLC Purchases New Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• WPG Advisers LLC has acquired a new stake in Visa Inc., purchasing 1,646 shares valued at approximately $577,000 in the first quarter.
• Several institutional investors, including Vanguard Group and Northern Trust Corp, have increased their positions in Visa, reflecting overall strong interest, as institutional ownership stands at 82.15%.
• Visa reported a quarterly EPS of $2.98, surpassing analysts' expectations, alongside a declared quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share scheduled for September 2nd.

WPG Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,646 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $577,000.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of V. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Visa by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $6,654,189,000 after purchasing an additional 726,299 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Visa by 38,416.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,173,271,000 after purchasing an additional 14,723,050 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in Visa by 14.9% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 13,321,754 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $4,210,207,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 12,796,415 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $4,045,149,000 after purchasing an additional 164,008 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on V shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a "buy" rating and a $410.00 target price for the company. Truist Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $397.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $380.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 77,127 shares of company stock valued at $28,340,553 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.6%

V stock traded up $2.06 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $351.92. 3,670,969 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,106,106. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market cap of $645.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.37, a P/E/G ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.94. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $348.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $347.44. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $268.23 and a 1-year high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.42 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Visa 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.