Magellan Asset Management Ltd Has $309.31 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Magellan Asset Management Ltd lowered its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 26.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 978,707 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 344,993 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 3.4% of Magellan Asset Management Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th biggest position. Magellan Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Visa were worth $309,311,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of V. Uniting Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $230,000. Grant Private Wealth Management Inc acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $865,000. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 19.5% in the fourth quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 22,423 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,093,000 after acquiring an additional 3,659 shares during the last quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 15.3% in the 4th quarter. Motley Fool Asset Management LLC now owns 98,442 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,112,000 after purchasing an additional 13,052 shares in the last quarter. Finally, World Investment Advisors grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. World Investment Advisors now owns 98,889 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,253,000 after purchasing an additional 7,012 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on V. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group increased their target price on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $346.49 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $345.14 and a 200-day moving average of $316.58. The company has a market cap of $643.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $2,930,800.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 134,585 shares of company stock worth $45,821,697. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa 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.