Visa Inc. $V Stake Increased by Railway Pension Investments Ltd

Railway Pension Investments Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 12.1% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 628,679 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 68,000 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 2.7% of Railway Pension Investments Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Railway Pension Investments Ltd’s holdings in Visa were worth $215,693,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Covington Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 53,375 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $18,312,000 after purchasing an additional 823 shares in the last quarter. CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 106.3% in the 2nd quarter. CTC Alternative Strategies Ltd. now owns 2,080 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $714,000 after purchasing an additional 1,072 shares in the last quarter. BTG Pactual Asset Management US LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. BTG Pactual Asset Management US LLC now owns 25,208 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $8,649,000 after purchasing an additional 1,110 shares in the last quarter. Senator Investment Group LP lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 23.8% in the second quarter. Senator Investment Group LP now owns 315,788 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $108,344,000 after purchasing an additional 60,788 shares during the period. Finally, Ancora Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the second quarter. Ancora Advisors LLC now owns 44,644 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,317,000 after purchasing an additional 944 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on V. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “outperform” rating and set a $450.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $416.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Weiss Ratings raised Visa from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Clear Str raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Visa from $400.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 29th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and twenty-four have given a Buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $416.62.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 5,875 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $367.87, for a total value of $2,161,236.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,582,059.38. The trade was a 27.91% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 57,272 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $364.97, for a total transaction of $20,902,561.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 49,662 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,125,140.14. The trade was a 53.56% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 96,634 shares of company stock worth $34,537,016 over the last three months. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Trading Down 0.6%

Shares of V opened at $379.17 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $293.89 and a 1-year high of $385.57. The stock has a market cap of $676.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 0.74. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $360.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $331.83.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.23 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $11.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.40 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 67.68% and a net margin of 50.78%.Visa’s revenue was up 14.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.98 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 13.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 11th will be given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 22.79%.

Visa Profile

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.