Scharf Investments LLC Has $174.04 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Scharf Investments LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 496,592 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 13,031 shares during the period. Visa makes up 5.3% of Scharf Investments LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest position. Scharf Investments LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $174,036,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. NewSquare Capital LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 377.3% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $36,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Sellwood Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Mountain Hill Investment Partners Corp. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $47,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on V. UBS Group upped their price objective on Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Truist Financial started coverage on Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $400.00 price target for the company. Barclays reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, June 13th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $372.80.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total value of $4,363,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,904,875. The trade was a 30.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $2,978,899.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $185,576.46. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 101,098 shares of company stock valued at $36,738,526. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $351.65 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $648.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $352.27 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $339.26. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 56.28% and a net margin of 52.86%. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.51 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.72%.

About Visa

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.