Manitou Investment Management Ltd. Acquires 4,426 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Manitou Investment Management Ltd. raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 111.0% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 8,412 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,426 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 0.5% of Manitou Investment Management Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Manitou Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,886,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Invariant Investment Management purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $969,000. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. increased its position in Visa by 58.1% in the first quarter. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. now owns 4,201 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,270,000 after buying an additional 1,543 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,455,834,000 after buying an additional 1,054,343 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Trust Services Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $15,966,000. Finally, Ticino Wealth purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $1,837,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $360.00, for a total value of $729,720.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 18,404 shares in the company, valued at $6,625,440. This represents a 9.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, 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 dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,206,524.32. The trade was a 51.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 101,398 shares of company stock worth $35,831,433. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $430.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. Clear Str raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Visa from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Wells Fargo & Company reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $432.00 target price (up from $412.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty-four have assigned a Buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $413.58.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $370.11 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $344.41 and a 200 day moving average of $326.79. The stock has a market cap of $663.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.74. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $293.89 and a 12 month high of $373.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.32 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.23 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 50.78% and a return on equity of 67.68%. The business had revenue of $11.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.40 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.98 EPS. Visa’s revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 13.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 11th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 11th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 22.79%.

Key Headlines Impacting Visa

Here are the key news stories impacting Visa this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Visa agreed to acquire fraud-intelligence provider BioCatch for $2.4 billion in cash. The transaction would expand Visa’s artificial-intelligence and cybersecurity capabilities, helping banks and merchants combat account takeovers, scams and other increasingly costly payment fraud. The deal also strengthens Visa’s competitive position against Mastercard in payment security. Visa vs. Mastercard: BioCatch Acquisition
• Positive Sentiment: Visa is moving stablecoin capabilities into production through Visa Direct and a partnership with Zero Hash, enabling stablecoin payouts and prefunding across eligible cards, accounts and wallets in 195 countries and territories. This could broaden Visa’s cross-border payment volume and preserve its role as digital currencies expand. Visa Stablecoin Cross-Border Payouts
• Positive Sentiment: Western Union’s Visa-branded Stablecard, initially launching in 37 markets, will let users hold and spend a dollar-backed stablecoin anywhere Visa is accepted. The rollout offers Visa additional exposure to remittances, digital wallets and cross-border transactions. Western Union Stablecard on Visa Network
• Neutral Sentiment: Industry commentary remains constructive on cross-border payment growth and strategic expansion, but warns that higher technology spending and pressure on consumer spending could weigh on margins across transaction-processing companies. Financial Transaction Stocks Outlook
• Negative Sentiment: Visa reportedly cut approximately 2,600 jobs, including 320 positions in California. Although the restructuring could improve efficiency and lower costs over time, the scale of the layoffs may raise concerns about near-term disruption, employee morale and management execution. Visa Job Cuts

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.