Soroban Capital Partners LP Has $895 Million Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

Soroban Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 19.2% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,961,240 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 476,622 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 1.7% of Soroban Capital Partners LP’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Soroban Capital Partners LP’s holdings in Visa were worth $895,005,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 2.3% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 2,414,787 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $729,845,000 after buying an additional 55,185 shares during the last quarter. ABS Direct Equity Fund LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 1st quarter valued at about $366,000. Owlhouse Capital LP boosted its stake in Visa by 44.9% during the 1st quarter. Owlhouse Capital LP now owns 23,302 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,043,000 after purchasing an additional 7,222 shares during the period. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 168.1% during the 1st quarter. Gateway Wealth Partners LLC now owns 8,470 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,560,000 after purchasing an additional 5,311 shares during the period. Finally, Blue Chip Partners LLC grew its position in Visa by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Blue Chip Partners LLC now owns 92,087 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $27,832,000 after purchasing an additional 1,511 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total transaction of $10,699,103.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,284.36. This trade represents a 67.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, 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 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 position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 75,581 shares of company stock valued at $25,627,975 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on V. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Visa from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Visa from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $389.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Evercore set a $350.00 price target on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and nineteen have assigned a Buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $399.41.

Visa Stock Up 1.9%

Shares of V stock opened at $362.37 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $293.89 and a 1 year high of $365.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The business’s fifty day moving average is $338.16 and its 200-day moving average is $325.18. The stock has a market cap of $650.01 billion, a PE ratio of 31.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.75.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.21. Visa had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 51.68%.The business had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.76 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 13.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit-card processor to purchase up to 3.6% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.