Jennison Associates LLC Has $2.59 Billion Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Jennison Associates LLC cut its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 4.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,383,557 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 339,694 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 1.8% of Jennison Associates LLC's holdings, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Jennison Associates LLC owned approximately 0.40% of Visa worth $2,587,642,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the stock. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $528,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Blue Rock Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $306,000. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 19.8% during the 4th quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 182,658 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $57,727,000 after purchasing an additional 30,185 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC now owns 2,568 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $811,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 610,517 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $192,948,000 after purchasing an additional 43,546 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,121,041.50. The trade was a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 101,108 shares of company stock worth $36,771,200. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Thursday. They set a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price target for the company. Citigroup assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, 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 report 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $375.52.

Visa Trading Down 0.3%

V stock traded down $0.91 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $348.90. 4,916,998 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,795,706. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $356.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $343.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. The company has a market cap of $643.78 billion, a PE ratio of 35.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.37 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 56.28% and a net margin of 52.86%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.51 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.72%.

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.