Quantbot Technologies LP Trims Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Quantbot Technologies LP trimmed its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 54.3% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 31,220 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 37,049 shares during the period. Quantbot Technologies LP’s holdings in Visa were worth $8,584,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Arjuna Capital grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the second quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,111,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $731,000. Mechanics Bank Trust Department grew its position in Visa by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Mechanics Bank Trust Department now owns 32,460 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,520,000 after purchasing an additional 2,410 shares during the last quarter. Chicago Capital LLC increased its stake in Visa by 5.2% in the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the period. Finally, Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 9.3% in the second quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft now owns 58,655 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,299,000 after buying an additional 4,988 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $312.80 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $251.61 and a 12-month high of $313.66. The stock has a market cap of $582.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.15, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a 50-day moving average of $289.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $277.58.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.