Is it Still Safe to Own Visa (V) Shares?

ClearBridge Investments, an investment management firm, published its “Sustainability Leaders Strategy” fourth quarter 2021 investor letter – a copy of which can be downloaded here. The ClearBridge Sustainability Leaders Strategy outperformed its Russell 3000 Index benchmark during the fourth quarter. On an absolute basis, the Strategy had gains in nine of 10 sectors in which it was invested (out of 11 sectors total). The main contributors were the IT, consumer discretionary, and health care sectors. The communication services sector was the sole detractor. Spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings to have a clue about their top bets for 2022.

ClearBridge Investments Sustainability Leaders Strategy, in its Q4 2021 investor letter, mentioned Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) and discussed its stance on the firm. Founded in 1958, Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is a San Francisco, California-based financial services company with a $493.1 billion market capitalization, and is currently spearheaded by its CEO, Alfred F. Kelly Jr. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) delivered a 5.09% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 4.16%. The stock closed at $227.74 per share on April 04, 2022.

Here is what ClearBridge Investments Sustainability Leaders Strategy has to say about Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in its Q4 2021 investor letter:

“We remained active during the quarter in finding differentiated opportunities and concentrating the portfolio in areas where we have the highest conviction. We added as well as to payments company Visa, which underperformed significantly in 2021 and continues to face near-term earnings pressure from reduced cross-border travel due to COVID-19. We believe the weakness created an opportunity for us to add to an exceptionally high-quality payments franchise with attractive growth and free cash flow profile and little credit or interest rate exposure.”

Our calculations show that Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) ranks 8th on our list of the 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) was in 142 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, compared to 143 funds in the previous quarter. Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) delivered a 2.37% return in the past 3 months.

In March 2022, we also shared another hedge fund’s views on Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in another article. You can find other letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on our hedge fund investor letters 2021 Q4 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.