Bell Asset Management Ltd Sells 8,749 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Bell Asset Management Ltd decreased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 30.5% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,951 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 8,749 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 1.6% of Bell Asset Management Ltd’s holdings, making the stock its 18th biggest holding. Bell Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,084,000 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 bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 1st quarter valued at 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 lifted its position in Visa by 2.5% in 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 last quarter. 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.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $334.10 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The stock has a market cap of $608.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $339.91 and a two-hundred day moving average of $347.52. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $299.00 and a 1 year high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $10.72 billion for 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 period last year, the company posted $2.71 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date 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 currently 26.25%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 owned 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $183,117. This trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total value of $707,919.96. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,608,789.09. The trade was a 7.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 24,042 shares of company stock valued at $8,175,152. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. 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. Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. KeyCorp restated an “overweight” rating and set a $405.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, UBS Group set a $425.00 target price on Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Four research 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, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.