Marathon Asset Management Ltd Sells 26,865 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Marathon Asset Management Ltd reduced its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 12.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 184,927 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 26,865 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 2.0% of Marathon Asset Management Ltd's investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Marathon Asset Management Ltd's holdings in Visa were worth $64,809,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 4.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $12,729,901,000 after acquiring an additional 1,689,926 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in Visa by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $7,526,660,000 after acquiring an additional 866,596 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its position in Visa by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $7,356,614,000 after purchasing an additional 241,057 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Visa by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,771,116,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785,707 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Up 1.3%

V stock traded up $4.48 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $358.70. 3,702,810 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,847,691. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The company has a market cap of $661.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 0.92. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $354.87 and its 200-day moving average price is $340.67. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.72%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $889,868.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,121,041.50. The trade was a 17.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $2,978,899.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $185,576.46. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 92,478 shares of company stock valued at $33,717,733 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on V shares. Citigroup began coverage on Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating on the stock. Barclays reaffirmed an "overweight" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, June 13th. William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "neutral" rating for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $372.84.

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.