Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI Purchases 102,591 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 24% in Q1, acquiring an additional 102,591 shares, bringing its total holdings to 529,974 shares valued at approximately $185.7 million.
• Visa's recent earnings show an EPS of $2.98, surpassing estimates, with a revenue of $10.17 billion, indicating a strong financial performance with a year-over-year growth of 14.3%.
• Analysts expect continued optimism for Visa, reflected in multiple price target increases, with an average target price of $385.96 and most ratings leaning towards "Buy."

Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 24.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 529,974 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 102,591 shares during the period. Visa makes up 1.5% of Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI's portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI's holdings in Visa were worth $185,735,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 acquiring an additional 1,677,088 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.0% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $6,654,189,000 after purchasing an additional 726,299 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 38,416.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,173,271,000 after purchasing an additional 14,723,050 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in Visa by 14.9% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,675,220 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $4,442,157,000 after buying an additional 434,217 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 target price (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Mizuho raised Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $385.96.

Visa Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of V stock opened at $342.45 on Tuesday. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $348.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $347.15. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $268.23 and a twelve month high of $375.51. 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 company has a market capitalization of $627.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.44, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.92.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total transaction of $4,363,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,904,875. The trade was a 30.58% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 22,293 shares of company stock worth $8,114,295 in the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.

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