Vanguard Group Inc. Acquires 1,461,575 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 1,461,575 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 0.9% of Vanguard Group Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 8.87% of Visa worth $57,711,249,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund increased its position in shares of Visa by 14.5% during the first quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $159,523,000 after acquiring an additional 57,800 shares in the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 7.5% during the 2nd quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $564,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 2nd quarter worth $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 5.9% in the first quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $22,040,000 after purchasing an additional 3,484 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NatWest Group plc lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 43.8% during the second quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 45,660 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $16,212,000 after purchasing an additional 13,912 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $325.64 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $593.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $341.83 and its 200 day moving average is $348.59. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $299.00 and a one year high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 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 prior year, the business posted $2.71 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 26.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price objective on Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $408.00 target price (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Macquarie lowered their price target on Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $400.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $183,117. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 21,870 shares of company stock worth $7,467,233. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

About Visa

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.