Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Aberdeen Group plc

Aberdeen Group plc lowered its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 1.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,405,202 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 21,347 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 0.9% of Aberdeen Group plc's portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest holding. Aberdeen Group plc owned 0.08% of Visa worth $484,092,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in V. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 38,416.3% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,173,271,000 after buying an additional 14,723,050 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $3,518,533,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 18.0% in the 4th 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 period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $673,689,000. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 295.4% in the 4th 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 period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Barclays restated an "overweight" rating and issued a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Citigroup initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating on the stock. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $380.84.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $345.53 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $262.84 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $350.69 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $347.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm has a market cap of $633.27 billion, a PE ratio of 33.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be paid 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 is Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.05%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, 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 transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,904,875. This trade represents a 30.58% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 75,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,643,224. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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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