Visa Inc. $V Shares Sold by Rafferty Asset Management LLC

Rafferty Asset Management LLC decreased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 566,302 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 3,126 shares during the quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $193,324,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $57,711,249,000 after buying an additional 1,461,575 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Visa by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,253,245,000 after acquiring an additional 1,067,631 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter worth $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. lifted its position in Visa by 14.6% in the second quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,769,936,000 after acquiring an additional 2,429,996 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 1.1% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,820,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,552,057,000 after acquiring an additional 145,665 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on V. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 30th. Truist Financial set a $372.00 target price on Visa in a research report on Tuesday, February 10th. Freedom Capital raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 16th. HSBC upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $411.00 target price (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $391.43.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total transaction of $3,661,152.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,401 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,282,641.18. This represents a 52.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.7%

Visa stock opened at $319.07 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $333.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $338.12. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $299.00 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $579.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.93, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.14 by $0.03. Visa had a return on equity of 61.74% and a net margin of 50.23%.The business had revenue of $10.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.69 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.75 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 10th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 25.14%.

Visa Company 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.