J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG Grows Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Key Points

• J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 27.1% in the first quarter, now owning over 80,000 shares valued at nearly $28 million.
• Other institutional investors also raised their holdings significantly, with GAMMA Investing LLC boosting its stake by 38,416.3%, acquiring over 14 million shares valued at more than $5 billion.
• Visa recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, representing an annualized dividend yield of 0.7%.

J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 27.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 80,330 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 17,104 shares during the quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG's holdings in Visa were worth $27,997,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in 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 during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Visa by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,771,116,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785,707 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $673,689,000. Sanders Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $623,022,000. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 295.4% in the fourth quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 2,362,202 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $746,550,000 after purchasing an additional 1,764,781 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 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 value of $4,363,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,904,875. This represents a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 89,913 shares of company stock worth $32,902,432 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on V. Citigroup began coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating for the company. Evercore ISI began coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $415.00 price objective (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating for the company. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $380.84.

Visa Stock Down 1.9%

Shares of V opened at $338.81 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $254.51 and a 12 month high of $375.51. The stock's 50 day moving average is $355.06 and its two-hundred day moving average is $346.34. The firm has a market cap of $625.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.09, a PEG ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

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

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.

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