State Street Corp Purchases 3,327,977 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 0.9% of State Street Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest position. State Street Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $21,064,179,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. SYM FINANCIAL Corp boosted its position in Visa by 13.1% during the third quarter. SYM FINANCIAL Corp now owns 1,691 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $465,000 after purchasing an additional 196 shares in the last quarter. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $504,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $16,782,000. Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its stake in Visa by 22.6% during the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 155,583 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $42,778,000 after acquiring an additional 28,724 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Red Wave Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 1.4% in the third quarter. Red Wave Investments LLC now owns 2,817 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $775,000 after buying an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $309.89 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.14 and a 1 year high of $317.42. 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 stock has a market cap of $577.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $294.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $279.25.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup boosted their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price target on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.