Cooper Investors PTY Ltd. Sells 58,103 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Cooper Investors PTY Ltd. lowered its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 71.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 22,900 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 58,103 shares during the period. Visa makes up 2.1% of Cooper Investors PTY Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 16th largest holding. Cooper Investors PTY Ltd.’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,818,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Visa by 1.8% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,241,348 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $438,196,000 after purchasing an additional 21,401 shares during the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 7.5% in 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 period. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.9% in the second quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 95,150 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $33,783,000 after buying an additional 5,295 shares during the last quarter. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the second quarter worth approximately $862,000. Finally, Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC grew its position in Visa by 5.9% during 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 buying an additional 3,484 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $355.09 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $646.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.78, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $338.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $344.13. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $299.00 and a 52 week high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.60 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.71 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were issued a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 26.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on V. UBS Group set a $425.00 price target on shares of Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 8th. HSBC raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $335.00 to $389.00 in a report on Sunday, December 7th. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price target on Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $382.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $402.52.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total transaction of $707,919.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,608,789.09. This represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 2,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,175,152 in the last 90 days. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.