Visa Inc. $V Shares Acquired by S&CO Inc.

S&CO Inc. increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 13.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 23,335 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,709 shares during the period. S&CO Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,966,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in Visa in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 14.6% in the second quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,769,936,000 after purchasing an additional 2,429,996 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 110.4% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,954,937 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,396,930,000 after purchasing an additional 2,075,289 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,461,575 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,253,245,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067,631 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on V. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Citigroup upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Bank of America raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $382.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Daiwa America upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $370.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have given a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $392.29.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $325.48 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $338.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $340.57. The stock has a market capitalization of $590.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.53, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $299.00 and a 52-week high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.14 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $10.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.69 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 61.74% and a net margin of 50.23%.Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.75 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 10th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.14%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total transaction of $707,919.96. Following the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,608,789.09. The trade was a 7.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company’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 position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Visa Profile

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.