Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Purchases 1,536 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Key Points

• The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board increased its holdings in Visa Inc. by 82.0% to a total of 3,409 shares, making their Visa investment worth approximately $1.2 million as of the latest reporting period.
• Insider activity notable includes sales by CEO Ryan Mcinerney and insider Paul D. Fabara, with a significant reduction of their respective positions by 94.14% and 30.58%.
• Visa recently reported earnings that exceeded analyst expectations, with revenues of $10.17 billion for the quarter, representing a 14.3% year-over-year increase.

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board lifted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 82.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,409 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 1,536 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board's holdings in Visa were worth $1,195,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position 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 purchasing an additional 14,723,050 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of Visa by 18.0% during 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 buying an additional 2,785,707 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $673,689,000. Sanders Capital LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $623,022,000. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC grew 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 acquiring 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 related news, 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total transaction of $4,363,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,904,875. This trade represents a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 75,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,643,224. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.3%

NYSE V traded down $0.84 during trading on Monday, hitting $335.94. 5,711,318 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,641,267. The firm has a market cap of $615.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.81, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $258.74 and a 12-month 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 stock has a fifty day moving average of $352.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $347.26.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly 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 firm had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.42 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on V. Mizuho upgraded Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. UBS Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $415.00 target price (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $380.84.

Visa 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.