Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Increases Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 92.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 128,061 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 61,346 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Visa were worth $38,705,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Galaxy Digital Capital Management GP LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 432.4% in the 1st quarter. Galaxy Digital Capital Management GP LLC now owns 7,171 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,167,000 after buying an additional 5,824 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in Visa by 205.2% during the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 676,767 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $204,545,000 after acquiring an additional 454,999 shares during the period. Bollard Group LLC grew its position in Visa by 22.3% during the first quarter. Bollard Group LLC now owns 31,929 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $9,650,000 after acquiring an additional 5,831 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC increased its stake in Visa by 3.1% during the first quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 197,350 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $59,647,000 after acquiring an additional 6,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL increased its stake in Visa by 7.5% during the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 37,750 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $11,410,000 after acquiring an additional 2,619 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. BNP Paribas Exane raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 21st. Barclays started coverage on Visa in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $420.00 price objective on the stock. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $389.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $400.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler started coverage on Visa in a report on Monday, June 29th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $394.00 target price on the stock. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $399.41.

Visa News Roundup

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Truist Financial raised its price target on Visa to $394 from $371 and reiterated a buy rating, signaling more upside as analysts remain constructive on the stock.
• Positive Sentiment: BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Visa, adding to the bullish analyst momentum around the company’s earnings outlook and business fundamentals.
• Positive Sentiment: Several reports suggest Visa could deliver another “business as usual” earnings beat next week, supported by resilient consumer credit demand, strong payment volumes, and ongoing digital payments growth.
• Positive Sentiment: Visa also continues to announce new partnerships, including embedded-finance and agentic-commerce initiatives with Airwallex and Lianlian, which highlight continued expansion opportunities in business-to-business and next-generation payments.
• Neutral Sentiment: Market commentary comparing Visa and Mastercard favorably to American Express after AMEX’s post-earnings selloff may be helping keep Visa steady, but it is more of an industry read-through than a company-specific catalyst.
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa is also drawing attention as a “wide-moat” stock, reflecting its durable competitive position, though that is mainly a long-term quality argument rather than a fresh near-term driver.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $355.29 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $293.89 and a 1-year high of $365.14. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $337.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $325.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market cap of $637.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.95, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.75.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.10 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.75 billion. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 13.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.34%.

Visa declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase 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 buy up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total transaction of $729,720.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 18,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,625,440. This trade represents a 9.92% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total value of $3,455,653.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 9,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,206,524.32. This trade represents a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 75,581 shares of company stock valued at $25,627,975. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

About Visa

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.