CenterBook Partners LP Boosts Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

CenterBook Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 99,717 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 6,419 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 2.0% of CenterBook Partners LP’s holdings, making the stock its 3rd biggest holding. CenterBook Partners LP’s holdings in Visa were worth $35,405,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Visa by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position 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 worth $3,847,953,000 after buying an additional 1,651,954 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 2.5% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,253,245,000 after buying an additional 1,067,631 shares during the period. Finally, MUFG Securities EMEA plc purchased a new position in Visa during the first quarter worth $373,240,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. 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, October 29th. UBS Group set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Erste Group Bank downgraded Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Macquarie decreased their price target on Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $400.00.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total value of $3,575,385.00. Following the completion of 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 document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 2,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,175,152 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $328.24 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $340.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $347.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $299.00 and a one year high of $375.51. The firm has a market cap of $597.97 billion, a PE ratio of 32.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The company 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 is an increase 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 is Wednesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is 26.25%.

Visa Company 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.