Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stake Cut by First Merchants Corp

Posted by Defense World Staff on Jul 12th, 2023

First Merchants Corp cut its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V – Free Report) by 0.7% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 70,439 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 493 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 1.4% of First Merchants Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $15,881,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. JDM Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. McElhenny Sheffield Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. Financial Freedom LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Ridgewood Investments LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the first quarter valued at $35,000. 84.92% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com started coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $270.00 to $273.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. 22nd Century Group restated a “maintains” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $262.00 to $265.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 26th. Finally, KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $250.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, April 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and sixteen have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $262.52.

Visa Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of V opened at $240.58 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $229.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $225.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $450.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $174.60 and a 1-year high of $240.70. The company has a current ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56.

Visa (NYSE:V – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.97 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $7.99 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.79 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 50.21% and a net margin of 50.95%. Visa’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.79 EPS. Analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 8.59 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 12th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 11th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.06%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 1,288 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $232.97, for a total transaction of $300,065.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,542 shares in the company, valued at approximately $592,209.74. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 2,300 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $240.00, for a total transaction of $552,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $55,706,880. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 1,288 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $232.97, for a total value of $300,065.36. Following the sale, the director now owns 2,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $592,209.74. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 142,602 shares of company stock worth $33,336,374. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

About Visa

(Free Report)

Visa Inc operates as a payments technology company worldwide. 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, click to pay; Visa Direct, a real-time payments network; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral B2B cross-border payments network; Visa Treasury as a Service, a cross-border consumer payments business; 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.