World Investment Advisors Has $37.85 Million Position in Visa Inc. $V

World Investment Advisors boosted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.5% during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 106,598 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,551 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 0.9% of World Investment Advisors’ portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. World Investment Advisors’ holdings in Visa were worth $37,848,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the first quarter valued at about $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 1.1% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,677,088 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Visa by 17.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 1,651,954 shares during the period. MUFG Securities EMEA plc bought a new stake in Visa in the first quarter valued at about $373,240,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC increased its stake in Visa by 7.2% in the first 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 valued at $5,003,569,000 after acquiring an additional 955,392 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $342.30, for a total transaction of $3,589,015.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $183,815.10. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel directly 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 SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Price Performance

V opened at $341.07 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $287.19 and a one year high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $344.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $348.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $625.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.90.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The business had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.71 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.11%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $408.00 target price (up previously from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. KeyCorp reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Barclays reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

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.