Swiss National Bank Reduces Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Swiss National Bank lowered its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,024,400 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 180,700 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 1.0% of Swiss National Bank’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.27% of Visa worth $1,308,103,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of V. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Trifecta Capital Advisors LLC now owns 20,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,641,000 after acquiring an additional 536 shares during the period. Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 13.8% in the third quarter. Arthur M. Cohen & Associates LLC now owns 6,162 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,417,000 after purchasing an additional 745 shares in the last quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 95.5% in the third quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 8,237 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,895,000 after purchasing an additional 4,024 shares in the last quarter. Golden State Equity Partners raised its stake in shares of Visa by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Golden State Equity Partners now owns 11,902 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,738,000 after purchasing an additional 575 shares during the period. Finally, Signet Investment Advisory Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. Signet Investment Advisory Group Inc. now owns 18,012 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,143,000 after purchasing an additional 392 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.4 %

Visa stock traded up $1.03 on Thursday, hitting $268.35. 1,795,794 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,887,687. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.14 and a 1 year high of $290.96. The firm has a market cap of $492.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $278.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $265.21.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.09 EPS. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.93 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,724 shares of company stock valued at $3,278,698 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Evercore ISI upped their price target on Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Macquarie lifted their price objective on Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $303.00.

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.