Waterloo Capital L.P. Increases Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Waterloo Capital L.P. grew its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 15,148 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 272 shares during the quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P.’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,378,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund grew its stake in Visa by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $159,523,000 after acquiring an additional 57,800 shares in the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC boosted 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 purchasing an additional 111 shares during the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.9% in the first quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $22,040,000 after purchasing an additional 3,484 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NatWest Group plc increased its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 13,912 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $328.24 on Friday. The company’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 1 year low of $299.00 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The company has a market capitalization of $597.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.87.

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, 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 firm had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.60 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors 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 yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 26.25%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,117. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,175,152 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on V. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $408.00 price objective (up previously from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Macquarie lowered their price target on shares of Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Erste Group Bank lowered shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. UBS Group set a $425.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 22nd. Four research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

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.