Forum Financial Management LP Sells 8,279 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Forum Financial Management LP decreased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 70.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,442 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 8,279 shares during the quarter. Forum Financial Management LP’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,040,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $5,877,738,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 867.6% in the fourth quarter. Cardano Risk Management B.V. now owns 8,213,610 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,880,595,000 after acquiring an additional 7,364,762 shares in the last quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 29,706.3% in the first quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,332,947 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,216,310,000 after acquiring an additional 7,308,345 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP increased its position in Visa by 12,497.1% during the fourth quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP now owns 3,378,039 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,184,712,000 after acquiring an additional 3,351,223 shares during the period. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its position in Visa by 48.2% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,508,089 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,282,472,000 after acquiring an additional 2,116,463 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Key Stories Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa is participating in the launch of the Open USD stablecoin initiative alongside major players like Stripe, Google, and BlackRock, a sign that the company is staying central to the next wave of digital payments and money movement. Visa and Google Sign on to Use Money Movement Stablecoin OpenUSD
• Positive Sentiment: Visa’s new travel platform expansion and cross-border partnership push could support transaction growth, especially as travel and experience spending remain strong. Visa redefines its role in travel with the global expansion of Visa Destinations
• Positive Sentiment: Visa said online deal hunting is helping consumers keep spending on discretionary purchases, which is encouraging for payment volume trends. Visa Says Online Deal Hunting Sustains Consumers’ Discretionary Spending
• Neutral Sentiment: Visa also unveiled smartphone-based tools for small businesses to accept payments through Visa Pay, Visa Accept and Visa Direct, which supports its long-term growth story but is more incremental near term. Visa Brings Card Acceptance to SMB Smartphones
• Negative Sentiment: CEO Ryan McInerney sold 20,970 shares in a pre-arranged transaction, which can create a small amount of investor caution even though it was conducted under a 10b5-1 plan. SEC filing for CEO stock sale

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total transaction of $10,699,103.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,284.36. This trade represents a 67.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available 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 the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total value of $3,455,653.59. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,206,524.32. This trade represents a 51.87% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 63,064 shares of company stock valued at $21,289,800 over the last quarter. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $342.63 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $324.40 and its 200 day moving average is $324.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $614.60 billion, a PE ratio of 29.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.77. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $293.89 and a 1 year high of $359.66. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64.

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

Visa announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Tuesday, April 28th that permits the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the credit-card processor to repurchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is 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 paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have weighed in on V. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $415.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Visa from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $394.00 price target for the company. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $397.96.

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.