Traders Buy Large Volume of Visa Put Options (NYSE:V)

Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 129,825 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 332% compared to the typical daily volume of 30,025 put options.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 650 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 11th. The stock was 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 approximately $829,471.98. This trade represents a 19.53% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total value of $3,661,152.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 9,401 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,282,641.18. The trade was a 52.73% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Visa

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Clayton Financial Group LLC increased its position in Visa by 446.2% during the 4th quarter. Clayton Financial Group LLC now owns 71 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. PayPay Securities Corp lifted its holdings in Visa by 102.7% in the 4th quarter. PayPay Securities Corp now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Cresta Advisors Ltd. purchased a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Parvin Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 200.0% during the 3rd quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC now owns 75 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sagard Holdings Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, January 28th. Daiwa Securities Group upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $370.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $411.00 price target (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Seven 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 presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $392.65.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $299.86 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $544.30 billion, a PE ratio of 28.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 0.78. Visa has a 52 week low of $297.03 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $321.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $334.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $10.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.69 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.75 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Visa will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 10th were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 10th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 25.14%.

Key Visa News

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa deepened its commerce push by integrating Ingenico POS into its Acceptance Platform to unify online/offline payments — a move that can drive higher merchant penetration and capture more of the checkout stack. Visa’s Ingenico Tie-Up: Expanding Beyond the Payment Layer
• Positive Sentiment: Visa launched Visa Intelligent Authorisation (VIA) in Europe, expanding fraud/risk tools on the Visa Acceptance Platform — this should improve authorization rates and reduce merchant friction, supporting volume and fee growth. Visa Scales Intelligent Authorization Tech to Europe
• Positive Sentiment: Partnerships expanding addressable markets: Visa + Paythru on an EV fleet wallet and Fastboy Payments making BambooPay available via Cybersource broaden merchant use cases (mobility, IoT) and payment acceptance. These deals help diversify revenue beyond pure transaction fees. Visa and Paythru Team on EV Payments With White-Label Fleet Wallet Fastboy Payments / Cybersource
• Positive Sentiment: Visa Crypto Labs unveiled Visa CLI and is enabling agentic (AI) payments through collaborations with Stripe/Tempo — these experimental tools position Visa for emerging machine‑to‑machine payment flows and stablecoin rails. That narrative supports longer‑term growth optionality. Visa and Stripe-backed Tempo launch tools for AI agents
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage pieces argue the card networks are “buy the dip” opportunities as they expand into stablecoins and new rails; these articles reinforce a positive narrative but are more sentiment than new fundamentals. Visa, Mastercard and American Express Have Gotten Roughed Up. The Case for Buying the Dip.
• Negative Sentiment: Unusual options activity: investors bought ~129,825 put options (a ~332% jump vs. typical volume), signaling increased short/bear hedging and potential downward pressure or heightened volatility in the near term.
• Negative Sentiment: Competitive risk: Mastercard’s large BVNK/stablecoin push and other network moves accelerate rivalry in crypto/stablecoin rails — investors may worry about market share and margin pressure in new settlement rails. Mastercard BVNK acquisition coverage

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.