Spear Holdings RSC Ltd Takes $41.83 Million Position in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Spear Holdings RSC Ltd acquired a new position in Visa Inc. worth approximately $41.83 million, making Visa the firm's 14th largest holding.
• A variety of institutional investors increased their holdings in Visa, with Vanguard Group Inc. and Wellington Management Group LLP significantly boosting their positions in the first quarter.
• Visa reported quarterly earnings of $2.98 per share, exceeding expectations, and announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, reflecting a 0.7% dividend yield.

Spear Holdings RSC Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 117,800 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $41,825,000. Visa makes up 3.1% of Spear Holdings RSC Ltd's investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest holding.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Visa by 4.0% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $6,654,189,000 after acquiring an additional 726,299 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in Visa by 7.2% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,003,569,000 after acquiring an additional 955,392 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Visa by 3.5% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,675,220 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $4,442,157,000 after acquiring an additional 434,217 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Visa by 17.7% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,847,953,000 after acquiring an additional 1,651,954 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 price target (up previously from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and issued a $415.00 price target (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price target for the company. Macquarie lifted their price target on Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Raymond James Financial reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $389.00.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% 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 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $346.66 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $343.68 and a 200-day moving average price of $346.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $275.35 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The company has a market capitalization of $635.36 billion, a PE ratio of 33.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.90.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. 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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