Edgewood Management LLC Sells 954,453 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Edgewood Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 7,185,334 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 954,453 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 5.3% of Edgewood Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Edgewood Management LLC owned about 0.39% of Visa worth $1,975,608,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,833,981,000 after purchasing an additional 345,829 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in Visa by 2.2% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,783,857,000 after buying an additional 312,286 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,168,096,000 after acquiring an additional 670,590 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,683,101,000 after acquiring an additional 9,736,958 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the second quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 7,867,958 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,065,103,000 after acquiring an additional 55,437 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on V. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. Mizuho raised their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 target price (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.9 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $310.23 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $565.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.88, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $251.61 and a twelve month high of $312.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $289.07 and its 200-day simple moving average is $277.08.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

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.