Trillium Asset Management LLC Lowers Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Trillium Asset Management LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 10.3% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 103,072 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 11,797 shares during the period. Visa comprises 1.0% of Trillium Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 28th largest position. Trillium Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $36,596,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the first quarter worth about $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Visa by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in Visa by 17.7% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,847,953,000 after purchasing an additional 1,651,954 shares during the period. MUFG Securities EMEA plc acquired a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter worth about $373,240,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,003,569,000 after purchasing an additional 955,392 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total value of $3,575,385.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $183,117. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at $830,432.64. This represents a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 23,897 shares of company stock worth $8,164,561. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on V shares. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price objective on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $408.00 price objective (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Citigroup upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, UBS Group set a $425.00 price objective on Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $340.31 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $344.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $348.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $623.72 billion, a PE ratio of 33.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.87. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $299.00 and a 1 year high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The business’s revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 26.25%.

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.