Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. Acquires 814 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD. boosted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 11,997 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 814 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 2.5% of Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding. Asahi Life Asset Management CO. LTD.’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,260,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund grew its holdings in shares of 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 worth $159,523,000 after purchasing an additional 57,800 shares in the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 7.5% in the 2nd quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $564,000 after buying an additional 111 shares during the period. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter worth about $862,000. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 3,484 shares during the period. Finally, NatWest Group plc raised its position in Visa by 43.8% in the second quarter. NatWest Group plc now owns 45,660 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,212,000 after purchasing an additional 13,912 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at $830,432.64. This trade represents a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total value of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 23,897 shares of company stock valued at $8,164,561. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on V shares. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 price objective (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Citigroup upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They set a “buy” rating and a $410.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $400.00.

Visa Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $336.63 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $616.97 billion, a PE ratio of 32.97, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.87. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $299.00 and a 52 week high of $375.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.08. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $343.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $348.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The company had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.11%.

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.