Voleon Capital Management LP Buys 17,284 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Voleon Capital Management LP significantly increased its stake in Visa Inc. by 241.6% during the first quarter, acquiring an additional 17,284 shares, bringing its total ownership to 24,437 shares worth $8,564,000.
• Other hedge funds have also raised their positions in Visa, with Brighton Jones LLC increasing its holdings by 50.1% and Hyperion Asset Management lifting its stake by 6.7% during the fourth quarter.
• Visa has reported strong quarterly earnings with an EPS of $2.98, exceeding estimates, and declared a dividend of $0.59 per share, yielding 0.7%.

Voleon Capital Management LP grew its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 241.6% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 24,437 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 17,284 shares during the quarter. Voleon Capital Management LP's holdings in Visa were worth $8,564,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings 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 worth $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Visa by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $6,654,189,000 after buying an additional 726,299 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings 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. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in Visa by 14.9% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 13,321,754 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $4,210,207,000 after purchasing an additional 1,723,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 3.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 434,217 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Barclays reissued an "overweight" rating and set a $408.00 price target (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Wall Street Zen raised Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $385.96.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the 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 transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the firm's 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 sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, 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. Insiders have sold 22,293 shares of company stock worth $8,114,295 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock traded up $1.81 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $344.11. 4,643,732 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,978,725. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $348.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $347.15. 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 capitalization of $630.68 billion, a PE ratio of 33.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.92. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $268.23 and a one year 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 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.42 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

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.