Sage Mountain Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Sage Mountain Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,649 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 933 shares during the period. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,201,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter worth about $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Visa by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Visa by 17.7% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,847,953,000 after purchasing an additional 1,651,954 shares during the period. MUFG Securities EMEA plc purchased a new stake in Visa during the first quarter valued at approximately $373,240,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 7.2% during 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 acquiring an additional 955,392 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE V opened at $347.34 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $636.60 billion, a PE ratio of 33.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $344.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $347.98. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $280.78 and a 12-month high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.82 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 58.93% and a net margin of 52.16%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.42 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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 of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.05%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on V. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price target for the company. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $415.00 price objective (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Barclays restated an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $392.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total value of $3,589,015.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $183,815.10. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa 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.