AustralianSuper Pty Ltd Has $265.05 Million Position in Visa Inc. $V

AustralianSuper Pty Ltd lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 17.9% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 776,408 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 169,356 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 1.2% of AustralianSuper Pty Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest position. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd’s holdings in Visa were worth $265,050,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. Sagard Holdings Management Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Bare Financial Services Inc raised its position in Visa by 287.0% in the second quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 89 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Hoese & Co LLP acquired a new position in Visa in the second quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Quaker Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 202.7% during the second quarter. Quaker Wealth Management LLC now owns 114 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total transaction of $707,919.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,608,789.09. The trade was a 7.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total transaction of $3,661,152.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 9,401 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,282,641.18. The trade was a 52.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 30th. Macquarie Infrastructure reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $410.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $411.00 price objective (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 30th. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $405.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Daiwa America upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 2nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $392.29.

Visa Trading Up 0.8%

V opened at $331.82 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $299.00 and a 1-year high of $375.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $604.49 billion, a PE ratio of 31.13, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $338.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $340.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.14 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $10.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.69 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.23% and a return on equity of 61.74%. Visa’s revenue was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.75 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 10th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.14%.

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.