Banco Santander S.A. Raises Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Key Points

• Banco Santander S.A. increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 13.4%, owning a total of 232,667 shares, valued at approximately $81.54 million.
• Visa recently reported quarterly earnings, with $2.98 earnings per share, surpassing analyst expectations, and revenue of $10.17 billion, marking a 14.3% increase compared to last year.
• The company has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, with a yield of 0.7%, which will be paid to shareholders on September 2nd.

Banco Santander S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 13.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 232,667 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 27,517 shares during the period. Visa makes up 0.9% of Banco Santander S.A.'s holdings, making the stock its 17th biggest position. Banco Santander S.A.'s holdings in Visa were worth $81,540,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. von Borstel & Associates Inc. purchased a new position in Visa in the first quarter valued at $27,000. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. Navigoe LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $53,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the first quarter valued at $54,000. Finally, Hurley Capital LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $56,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $338.81 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $625.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.09, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $355.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $346.34. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $254.51 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.42 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.05%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating on the stock. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 target price on the stock. Macquarie lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $410.00 target price on the stock. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $380.84.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total transaction of $4,363,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,904,875. This trade represents a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 89,913 shares of company stock valued at $32,902,432 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.

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