Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 19.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,320 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,050 shares during the period. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,514,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of V. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 5.7% during the first quarter. Lakeridge Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,507 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $528,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund grew its stake in Visa by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $159,523,000 after buying an additional 57,800 shares during the last quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 7.7% during the 4th quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 610,517 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $192,948,000 after buying an additional 43,546 shares in the last quarter. FJ Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $283,000. Finally, Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 2.9% in the first quarter. Yeomans Consulting Group Inc. now owns 1,027 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $360,000 after buying an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on V. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Mizuho upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their target price for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 price target (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $385.96.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,102,438.50. This trade represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 22,293 shares of company stock worth $8,114,295. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $350.23 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $268.23 and a 1-year high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $348.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $347.36. The firm has a market cap of $641.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.92.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.42 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.05%.

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.