Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Trims Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lowered its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 959,384 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 30,123 shares during the quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership owned 0.05% of Visa worth $327,515,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $57,711,249,000 after purchasing an additional 1,461,575 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 2.5% in 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 buying an additional 1,067,631 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at about $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. boosted its position in Visa by 14.6% in the 2nd 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 buying an additional 2,429,996 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 1.1% in the 2nd 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 buying an additional 145,665 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Piper Sandler set a $160.00 price objective on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, January 28th. Evercore set a $380.00 price target on Visa in a research report on Friday, December 12th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Royal Bank Of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $395.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, HSBC upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 8th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $391.43.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $316.65 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $574.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.70, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.79. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $299.00 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $333.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $338.23.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted 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 net margin of 50.23% and a return on equity of 61.74%. The business had revenue of $10.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.69 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.75 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The stock was 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 approximately $3,282,641.18. The trade was a 52.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.