Visa Inc. $V Shares Bought by Ieq Capital LLC

Key Points

• Ieq Capital LLC increased its stock position in Visa Inc. by 7.7% during the 1st quarter, bringing its total shares to 192,878, valued at approximately $67.6 million.
• Analyst ratings for Visa have improved, with several firms upgrading their ratings and price targets, including Mizuho and Macquarie, which set a new target price of $425.00.
• Visa recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, reflecting an annualized dividend yield of 0.7%, with a dividend payout ratio of 23.05%.

Ieq Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 7.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 192,878 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 13,777 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 0.5% of Ieq Capital LLC's holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest position. Ieq Capital LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $67,596,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in V. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 38,416.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,173,271,000 after purchasing an additional 14,723,050 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter valued at about $3,518,533,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $673,689,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 14.9% during the 4th 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 valued at $4,210,207,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Performance

V traded down $0.25 on Thursday, reaching $350.10. The stock had a trading volume of 4,987,056 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,288,815. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $268.23 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The business's 50-day moving average price is $348.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $347.44. The company has a market cap of $641.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $2.42 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $415.00 price target (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $380.84.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related 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 owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 77,127 shares of company stock valued at $28,340,553. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.