Bessemer Securities LLC Cuts Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Bessemer Securities LLC lowered its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 45.4% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 14,278 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 11,850 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 2.3% of Bessemer Securities LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest position. Bessemer Securities LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,391,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Paulson Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 43.0% in the 2nd quarter. Paulson Wealth Management Inc. now owns 3,398 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $807,000 after acquiring an additional 1,022 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.1% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 124,045 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,458,000 after purchasing an additional 8,217 shares in the last quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 1st quarter valued at $677,000. CCLA Investment Management boosted its holdings in Visa by 12.0% during the 2nd quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 565,685 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $134,190,000 after acquiring an additional 60,585 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Chip Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Chip Partners LLC now owns 83,364 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $19,797,000 after acquiring an additional 2,402 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.35% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Visa from $285.00 to $278.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, October 30th. Citigroup lifted their target price on Visa from $273.00 to $275.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 26th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, October 5th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, October 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $295.00 target price for the company. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, October 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and fifteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $275.67.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.47, for a total value of $2,016,880.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 15,800 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $3,950,158.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $58,030,321.12. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $247.47, for a total value of $2,016,880.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 72,100 shares of company stock worth $17,368,639. 0.22% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock traded down $0.19 during trading on Monday, hitting $249.37. The company had a trading volume of 1,164,029 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,000,617. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $238.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $236.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $464.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.49, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $202.13 and a 52 week high of $250.93.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 24th. The credit-card processor reported $2.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.23 by $0.10. Visa had a net margin of 52.90% and a return on equity of 50.13%. The firm had revenue of $8.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.93 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 9th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.83%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 25.09%.

About Visa

Visa Inc operates as a payments technology company worldwide. 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, click to pay; Visa Direct, a real-time payments network; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral B2B cross-border payments network; Visa Treasury as a Service, a cross-border consumer payments business; 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.