Cornerstone Capital Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Cornerstone Capital Inc. cut its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 129,721 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 6,042 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 4.8% of Cornerstone Capital Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Cornerstone Capital Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $46,057,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund grew its stake in Visa by 14.5% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.5% during the 2nd quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $564,000 after acquiring an additional 111 shares during the period. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the 1st quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $22,040,000 after acquiring an additional 3,484 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NatWest Group plc increased its stake in Visa by 43.8% in the second quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 45,660 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $16,212,000 after acquiring an additional 13,912 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total value of $3,575,385.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $183,117. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total value of $707,919.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,608,789.09. The trade was a 7.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,175,152 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on V. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 target price on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Citigroup upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Erste Group Bank cut Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $408.00 price target (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $400.00.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $328.37 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $340.25 and a 200-day moving average of $347.74. The company has a market capitalization of $598.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.87. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $299.00 and a 1 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 1.08.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.71 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 26.25%.

About Visa

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.