Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Martin Currie Ltd.

Key Points

• Martin Currie Ltd. decreased its holdings in Visa Inc. by 5.4%, now owning 136,087 shares valued at approximately $47.69 million, which represents 1.9% of its portfolio.
• GAMMA Investing LLC significantly increased its stake in Visa by 38,416.3%, acquiring over 14.7 million shares, while other institutional investors also made substantial adjustments to their positions.
• Visa reported $2.98 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, with a revenue of $10.17 billion and a 14.3% year-over-year increase.

Martin Currie Ltd. lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 5.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 136,087 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 7,772 shares during the period. Visa makes up 1.9% of Martin Currie Ltd.'s portfolio, making the stock its 20th biggest position. Martin Currie Ltd.'s holdings in Visa were worth $47,693,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at $3,518,533,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 18.0% in 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 during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $673,689,000. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC boosted 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 valued at $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

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on V. William Blair restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $383.00 to $384.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays reiterated an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $415.00 price objective (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $380.84.

Visa Stock Up 0.9%

Visa stock opened at $345.53 on Friday. The company's 50-day moving average price is $350.69 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $347.27. The stock has a market cap of $633.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.74, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $262.84 and a 52 week high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The business's revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.42 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa's payout ratio is currently 23.05%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 46,214 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $370.00, for a total value of $17,099,180.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,772,810. The trade was a 63.63% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 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 transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 75,100 shares of company stock worth $27,643,224 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

About Visa

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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