Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Canoe Financial LP

Canoe Financial LP cut its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 19.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 387,901 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 91,547 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 1.8% of Canoe Financial LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest holding. Canoe Financial LP’s holdings in Visa were worth $122,592,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in Visa by 45,189.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,683,101,000 after acquiring an additional 9,736,958 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in Visa by 4,412.3% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,119,725,000 after purchasing an additional 4,166,905 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $354.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $331.92.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $319.97 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $313.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $288.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a PE ratio of 32.88, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $321.61.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.74%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

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.