D.A. Davidson & CO. Increases Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

D.A. Davidson & CO. grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 360,002 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 8,771 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Visa were worth $108,807,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $5,877,738,000. Cardano Risk Management B.V. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 867.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 7,364,762 shares in the last quarter. Diamant Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 29,706.3% during 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 purchasing an additional 7,308,345 shares in the last quarter. J. Stern & Co. LLP lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $1,184,712,000 after purchasing an additional 3,351,223 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $2,282,472,000 after purchasing an additional 2,116,463 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Loop Capital started coverage on Visa in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $387.00 price target on the stock. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 29th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $394.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $387.00 target price (up from $375.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday. Barclays started coverage on Visa in a research note on Tuesday, July 7th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $420.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $398.87.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $355.71 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $332.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $324.90. 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 Inc. has a 12 month low of $293.89 and a 12 month high of $365.02. The company has a market cap of $638.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.75.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.21. The firm had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.75 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 51.68%.The company’s revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.76 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 13.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.34%.

Visa announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Tuesday, April 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $20.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the credit-card processor to buy up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Key Headlines Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa expanded its AI payments push through the rollout of an “AI Financial Assistant” that banks can embed in their apps, giving cardholders conversational financial guidance and strengthening Visa’s fee-generating value-added services business. Visa Readies Rollout of AI Financial Assistant for Banking Apps
• Positive Sentiment: Visa’s Agentic Ready program picked up another partner, Thredd, which will help European issuers process AI-initiated payments without replacing their existing infrastructure, signaling broader adoption of Visa’s next-generation payment rails. Thredd Joins Visa Agentic Ready Program to Power AI Payments for European Issuers
• Positive Sentiment: Visa is also deepening its cross-border remittance business through its partnership with ACE Money Transfer, which could support transaction growth and international money movement volume. Can Visa Deepen Its Remittance Business Through ACE Partnership?
• Neutral Sentiment: Commentary around Visa’s involvement in crypto, stablecoins, and tokenized finance suggests the company remains central to the evolution of digital payments, but these developments are still early and not yet a clear earnings driver.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the general counsel owned 18,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,625,440. This trade represents a 9.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,161,284.36. This represents a 67.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 75,581 shares of company stock valued at $25,627,975. 0.12% of the stock is owned by 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.