Castleark Management LLC Has $77.01 Million Position in Visa Inc. $V

Castleark Management LLC boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 216,911 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,718 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises 2.3% of Castleark Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Castleark Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $77,014,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Visa by 0.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $57,711,249,000 after acquiring an additional 1,461,575 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,067,631 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Visa during the second quarter worth about $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Visa by 14.6% in the 2nd quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,769,936,000 after purchasing an additional 2,429,996 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in Visa by 4.0% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,987,013 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,654,189,000 after acquiring an additional 726,299 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $408.00 price target (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Bank of America raised shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $382.00 price target for the company in a research note on Thursday. HSBC raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $335.00 to $389.00 in a research report on Sunday, December 7th. Hsbc Global Res raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 price target on Visa and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $402.52.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $347.83 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $633.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.82. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $299.00 and a 52-week high of $375.51. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $337.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $345.25. 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 (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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 12th. 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 Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were 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 trade represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,175,152 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.