National Pension Service Grows Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

National Pension Service raised its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,136,548 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 140,213 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 1.0% of National Pension Service’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. National Pension Service’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,113,631,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its position in Visa by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $159,523,000 after purchasing an additional 57,800 shares in the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.5% during the second quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $564,000 after buying an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the second quarter valued at approximately $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the first quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $22,040,000 after buying an additional 3,484 shares during the period. Finally, NatWest Group plc boosted its position in Visa by 43.8% during the second quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 45,660 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,212,000 after acquiring an additional 13,912 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total value of $3,575,385.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $183,117. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at $830,432.64. This trade represents a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 23,897 shares of company stock valued at $8,164,561. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $338.67 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $620.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.87. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $299.00 and a 12 month high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $342.94 and its 200-day moving average is $348.85.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The business had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.60 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be given a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.11%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Erste Group Bank downgraded Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 target price on Visa and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Macquarie dropped their price objective on shares of Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $400.00.

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.