Bridgewater Associates LP Cuts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Bridgewater Associates LP decreased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 23.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 609,659 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 191,546 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 0.9% of Bridgewater Associates LP’s holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest position. Bridgewater Associates LP’s holdings in Visa were worth $167,626,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Unionview LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $631,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the last quarter. St. Louis Trust Co increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,068,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. FWG Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $900,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,831,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the period. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Visa by 15.9% in the third quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $74,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on V shares. Compass Point began coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $311.82 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $251.61 and a 12 month high of $314.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The firm has a market capitalization of $580.88 billion, a PE ratio of 32.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $290.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $277.80.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.