Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stake Reduced by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. decreased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 87.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 54,024 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 368,681 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.'s holdings in Visa were worth $18,933,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $5,171,271,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 38,416.3% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,173,271,000 after buying an additional 14,723,050 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $1,955,403,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,248,079,000 after buying an additional 3,926,049 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a "positive" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $372.80.

Visa Stock Down 5.0%

Shares of V traded down $18.65 during trading on Friday, reaching $352.75. The company's stock had a trading volume of 14,176,249 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,017,457. The company has a fifty day moving average of $349.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $337.61. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The company has a market cap of $650.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.51 EPS. Visa's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's payout ratio is 23.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $2,978,899.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $185,576.46. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,991,249.33. This trade represents a 59.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 140,448 shares of company stock valued at $50,133,659 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa 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.