Zega Financial LLC Lowers Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Zega Financial LLC reduced its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 56.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,282 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,990 shares during the period. Zega Financial LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $599,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in Visa by 787.1% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,619,881 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,296,820,000 after acquiring an additional 4,099,122 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $511,321,000. GQG Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 40.1% in the 1st quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,990,634 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,671,866,000 after purchasing an additional 1,715,686 shares in the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 26,951.9% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 1,587,944 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $416,788,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582,074 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 14,306.3% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 1,500,270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $390,595,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489,856 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $291.61 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $227.78 and a 52 week high of $293.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The firm has a market cap of $533.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.58, a PEG ratio of 2.01 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $269.30 and a 200-day moving average of $273.27.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.92 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.16 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on V shares. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $319.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Compass Point began coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $322.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $310.22.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc operates as a payment technology company in the United States and internationally. The company operates VisaNet, a transaction processing network that enables authorization, clearing, and settlement of payment transactions. It also offers credit, debit, and prepaid card products; tap to pay, tokenization, and click to pay services; Visa Direct, a solution that facilitates the delivery of funds to eligible cards, deposit accounts, and digital wallets; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral business-to-business cross-border payments network; Visa Cross-Border Solution, a cross-border consumer payments solution; and Visa DPS that provides a range of value-added services, including fraud mitigation, dispute management, data analytics, campaign management, a suite of digital solutions, and contact center services.