Swiss National Bank Has $1.39 Billion Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Swiss National Bank cut its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,868,900 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 592,800 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 0.9% of Swiss National Bank’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest holding. Swiss National Bank owned 0.32% of Visa worth $1,393,746,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Paulson Wealth Management Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 43.0% during the 2nd quarter. Paulson Wealth Management Inc. now owns 3,398 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $807,000 after acquiring an additional 1,022 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 7.1% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 124,045 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,458,000 after purchasing an additional 8,217 shares in the last quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 1st quarter worth about $677,000. CCLA Investment Management raised its stake in shares of Visa by 12.0% during the 2nd quarter. CCLA Investment Management now owns 565,685 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $134,190,000 after purchasing an additional 60,585 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Blue Chip Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 3.0% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Chip Partners LLC now owns 83,364 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $19,797,000 after purchasing an additional 2,402 shares in the last quarter. 81.35% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, Chairman Alfred F. Kelly, Jr. sold 40,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $236.14, for a total transaction of $9,445,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 139,854 shares in the company, valued at $33,025,123.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 15,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $250.01, for a total value of $3,950,158.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at $58,030,321.12. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Chairman Alfred F. Kelly, Jr. sold 40,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $236.14, for a total value of $9,445,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 139,854 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,025,123.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 72,100 shares of company stock worth $17,368,639 over the last 90 days. 0.22% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $245.25 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $238.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $235.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.49. The firm has a market cap of $456.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.58, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $202.13 and a one year high of $250.06.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 24th. The credit-card processor reported $2.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.23 by $0.10. Visa had a return on equity of 50.13% and a net margin of 52.90%. The firm had revenue of $8.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.93 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 9th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 8th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.85%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.45. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 25.09%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. KeyCorp raised their price target on Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 18th. HSBC began coverage on Visa in a research note on Friday, October 13th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $266.00 price objective on the stock. Raymond James raised their price objective on Visa from $284.00 to $287.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 25th. Citigroup raised their price objective on Visa from $273.00 to $275.00 in a research note on Wednesday, July 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Visa from $296.00 to $293.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $275.67.

Visa Profile

Visa Inc operates as a payments technology company worldwide. 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, click to pay; Visa Direct, a real-time payments network; Visa B2B Connect, a multilateral B2B cross-border payments network; Visa Treasury as a Service, a cross-border consumer payments business; 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.