J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,899 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,630 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $16,097,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $56,455,834,000 after buying an additional 1,054,343 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,042,586 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,411,395,000 after buying an additional 388,996 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 24,792,246 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,463,484,000 after buying an additional 193,288 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,877,738,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 13,114,674 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,475,403,000 after buying an additional 530,995 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total transaction of $3,455,653.59. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,206,524.32. This represents a 51.87% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of the 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 transaction, the director directly owned 2,679 shares in the company, valued at $829,471.98. The trade was a 19.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 42,744 shares of company stock valued at $14,356,010 in the last ninety days. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Key Stories Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa announced a collaboration with Brale to explore stablecoin-based settlement on the Canton Network, reinforcing its push into blockchain-enabled payments and suggesting the company wants to own the next phase of payment infrastructure rather than be disrupted by it. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Multiple reports highlighted Visa’s stablecoin strategy as a potential growth catalyst, with investors interpreting the Brale/Canton proof-of-concept and related coverage as evidence that Visa is expanding into faster, private institutional settlement. Article Title
• Positive Sentiment: Visa also announced leadership appointments in Asia Pacific aimed at scaling value-added services and accelerating Southeast Asia growth, supporting the longer-term revenue opportunity outside core card processing. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage on “pay-by-bank” noted that bank-to-bank payments are gaining some attention, but adoption and consumer trust remain limited, so the competitive threat to Visa appears more theoretical than immediate. Article Title
• Neutral Sentiment: Several stories about gold-backed Visa cards and Cuba-related sanctions were mostly brand or geopolitics headlines, with limited direct impact on Visa’s core earnings outlook. Article Title
• Negative Sentiment: The main bearish theme was the possibility that alternative payment rails and stablecoin platforms could pressure card networks over time, though recent reports suggest Visa may be participating in those solutions rather than losing share to them. Article Title

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of several recent research reports. Cantor Fitzgerald restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $403.00 price objective (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on Visa in a research report on Tuesday, April 21st. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $365.00 price objective on the stock. Citigroup lowered their price objective on Visa from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $450.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $387.78.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $320.06 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $574.12 billion, a PE ratio of 27.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.67 and a beta of 0.77. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $293.89 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $316.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $324.50.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.75 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 51.68%.The company’s revenue was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.76 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Tuesday, April 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the credit-card processor to repurchase up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 12th. Visa’s dividend 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.