ValueAct Holdings L.P. Invests $102.72 Million in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

ValueAct Holdings L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 373,600 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $102,721,000. Visa accounts for about 2.3% of ValueAct Holdings L.P.’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest holding.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 45,189.4% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,683,101,000 after buying an additional 9,736,958 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 4,412.3% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,119,725,000 after purchasing an additional 4,166,905 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its position in Visa by 4.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its stake in Visa by 26,951.9% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 1,587,944 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $416,788,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582,074 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $311.01 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $579.37 billion, a PE ratio of 31.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $295.71 and a 200 day simple moving average of $279.71. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $317.42.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. BNP Paribas upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Macquarie boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given 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 target price of $321.74.

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.