Martingale Asset Management L P Decreases Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Martingale Asset Management L P trimmed its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 18.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 144,608 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 32,152 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 0.9% of Martingale Asset Management L P’s holdings, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Martingale Asset Management L P’s holdings in Visa were worth $39,760,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 45,189.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,683,101,000 after purchasing an additional 9,736,958 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in Visa by 4,412.3% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,119,725,000 after purchasing an additional 4,166,905 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in Visa by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its position in Visa by 26,951.9% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 1,587,944 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $416,788,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582,074 shares during the period. Finally, B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $268,640,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V opened at $314.70 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $251.61 and a 12 month high of $316.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $586.25 billion, a PE ratio of 32.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $291.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $278.31.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on V. BNP Paribas raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. StockNews.com raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Macquarie upped their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

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.