AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc Lowers Stake in Visa Inc. $V

AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc cut its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 13.2% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 233,000 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 35,552 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 0.9% of AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc’s holdings, making the stock its 22nd largest position. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc’s holdings in Visa were worth $79,476,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 0.9% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $57,711,249,000 after buying an additional 1,461,575 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.5% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,253,245,000 after acquiring an additional 1,067,631 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 14.6% in the 2nd quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,769,936,000 after acquiring an additional 2,429,996 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,820,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,552,057,000 after acquiring an additional 145,665 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Macquarie decreased their price target on shares of Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $408.00 price objective (up previously from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. HSBC raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $335.00 to $389.00 in a research report on Sunday, December 7th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Citigroup raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $401.46.

Visa Stock Up 0.7%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $328.43 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $299.00 and a 1-year high of $375.51. The company has a market capitalization of $598.31 billion, a PE ratio of 32.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.81. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $338.55 and a 200-day moving average of $342.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.60 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total transaction of $3,661,152.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,401 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,282,641.18. This trade represents a 52.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total transaction of $707,919.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,608,789.09. This trade represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,247,289 in the last three months. 0.12% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.