Bridgewater Advisors Inc. Has $5.97 Million Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Bridgewater Advisors Inc. lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 19,312 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 693 shares during the quarter. Bridgewater Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,969,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of V. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $616,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,847,000 after acquiring an additional 4,198 shares in the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at about $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 5.2% during the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $323.76 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $313.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $289.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $603.12 billion, a PE ratio of 33.27, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $324.58.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on V shares. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $339.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Macquarie increased their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.92.

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.