Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is Mirova’s 7th Largest Position

Mirova reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.9% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 43,993 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,287 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 2.4% of Mirova’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Mirova’s holdings in Visa were worth $13,904,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in V. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its stake in Visa by 0.6% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after acquiring an additional 411,210 shares during the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $69,000. Passumpsic Savings Bank grew its holdings in Visa by 2.0% in the third quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 9,137 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,512,000 after purchasing an additional 179 shares during the period. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC increased its position in Visa by 101.5% during the third quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 44,984 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,368,000 after purchasing an additional 22,658 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on V. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Bank of America lifted their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James restated 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Trading Down 0.6 %

NYSE V opened at $329.26 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $611.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $366.54. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $340.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $320.74.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Company 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.