Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Holocene Advisors LP

Holocene Advisors LP lessened its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 60.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,067,010 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,628,920 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 1.2% of Holocene Advisors LP’s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Holocene Advisors LP’s holdings in Visa were worth $293,374,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 970.0% in the second quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC grew its position in Visa by 211.9% during the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The stock was 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 directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The trade was a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on V. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 price target (up previously from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Compass Point assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective on the stock. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $315.90 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.14 and a 12 month high of $316.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market capitalization of $588.48 billion, a PE ratio of 32.38, a PEG ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $292.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $278.55.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

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.