Allianz SE Increases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Allianz SE increased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 112,143 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 4,317 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 0.9% of Allianz SE’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest holding. Allianz SE’s holdings in Visa were worth $39,816,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 1.1% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $56,452,949,000 after buying an additional 1,677,088 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,253,245,000 after purchasing an additional 1,067,631 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.0% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,654,189,000 after acquiring an additional 726,299 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.2% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,003,569,000 after buying an additional 955,392 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Visa by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,675,220 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,442,157,000 after buying an additional 434,217 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the company’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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $183,117. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,468 shares in the company, 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 have sold a total of 23,897 shares of company stock worth $8,164,561 in the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on V. Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 price objective on shares of Visa and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Citigroup raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $408.00 price target (up from $396.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $408.00 price target (up previously from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $400.00.

Visa Trading Down 0.9%

Shares of NYSE V opened at $335.76 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $299.00 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $342.43 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $348.69. The firm has a market cap of $615.37 billion, a PE ratio of 32.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.87.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be given a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 26.25%.

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.