Great Lakes Advisors LLC Decreases Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Great Lakes Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in Visa Inc. by 13.8%, selling 4,074 shares in the first quarter, leaving them with 25,353 shares valued at approximately $8.88 million.
• Insider activity saw Paul D. Fabara sell 11,636 shares at an average price of $375.00, resulting in a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of Visa.
• Visa recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, reflecting a dividend yield of 0.7% and a payout ratio of 23.05%.

Great Lakes Advisors LLC cut its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 13.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 25,353 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 4,074 shares during the period. Great Lakes Advisors LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $8,885,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of V. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake 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 worth $5,173,271,000 after purchasing an additional 14,723,050 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the first quarter worth $3,518,533,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $673,689,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 14.9% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 13,321,754 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $4,210,207,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723,785 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V traded up $5.22 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $343.34. 3,777,190 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,456,574. The stock has a market capitalization of $629.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.53, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $268.23 and a 52-week high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company's 50 day moving average price is $347.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $347.07.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $10.17 billion for 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%. Visa's revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.42 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is 23.05%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "neutral" rating for the company. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Mizuho raised shares of Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their target price for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 target price (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $385.96.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on 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 in the company, valued at $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.