PBU The Pension Fund of Early Childhood & Youth Educators Makes New $23.09 Million Investment in Visa Inc. $V

PBU The Pension Fund of Early Childhood & Youth Educators acquired a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 65,841 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $23,091,000. Visa comprises 0.8% of PBU The Pension Fund of Early Childhood & Youth Educators’ holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest position.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $14,692,000. Arsenal Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $557,000. FLC Capital Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. FLC Capital Advisors now owns 2,974 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,043,000 after buying an additional 71 shares during the last quarter. Petersen Hastings Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $204,000. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 85,466 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,980,000 after buying an additional 1,481 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.62, for a total value of $201,253.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,679 shares in the company, valued at approximately $829,471.98. The trade was a 19.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total transaction of $10,699,103.70. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,284.36. The trade was a 67.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last three months, insiders sold 42,744 shares of company stock worth $14,356,010. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Bank of America started coverage on Visa in a report on Thursday, March 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $415.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Freedom Capital upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 16th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. They set an “outperform” rating and a $365.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $389.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $387.78.

Key Visa News

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa is testing private stablecoin settlement with Brale on the Canton Network, a proof of concept aimed at enabling institutional payments with more privacy and efficiency. Investors may see this as evidence that Visa is expanding its payments infrastructure into a potentially high-growth use case. Article: Visa tests private stablecoin settlement with Brale, Canton
• Positive Sentiment: Visa’s new partnership with Brale reinforces its stablecoin strategy and suggests the company is actively building tools for institutional blockchain settlement, which could strengthen long-term growth prospects. Article: How Visa Advances Stablecoin Payment Vision With Brale Partnership?
• Positive Sentiment: Reports that Visa, Mastercard, Stripe and others are collaborating on a new stablecoin platform suggest major payments players are validating the opportunity, which may help Visa if the initiative gains merchant traction. Article: Visa Mastercard Stablecoin Push Tests Circle USDC And Rich Valuation
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa also announced leadership appointments in Asia Pacific to support value-added services and Southeast Asia growth, a positive operating update but likely not a major near-term stock driver. Article: Visa Announces Asia Pacific Leadership Appointments to Scale Value-Added Services and Southeast Asia Growth
• Negative Sentiment: News that Visa and Mastercard payments are being halted in Cuba adds a small regional headwind, though the revenue impact is likely limited compared with Visa’s overall global business. Article: Visa, Mastercard payments to be halted in Cuba amid new US sanctions

Visa Stock Up 1.2%

V opened at $324.03 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $316.53 and a 200 day moving average price of $324.49. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $293.89 and a twelve month high of $375.51. 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 has a market cap of $581.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.77.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The business had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.75 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 EPS for the current year.

Visa announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Tuesday, April 28th that permits the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the credit-card processor to repurchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Visa Profile

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.