Banco Santander S.A. Buys 5,394 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Banco Santander S.A. increased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 210,360 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 5,394 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 0.7% of Banco Santander S.A.’s portfolio, making the stock its 20th largest position. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Visa were worth $57,838,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.4% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,833,981,000 after buying an additional 345,829 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted 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 valued at $3,783,857,000 after acquiring an additional 312,286 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 45,189.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,683,101,000 after acquiring an additional 9,736,958 shares during the period. Ninety One UK Ltd raised its position in shares of Visa by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 7,867,958 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,065,103,000 after acquiring an additional 55,437 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 9.8% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,670,269 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,013,403,000 after purchasing an additional 685,228 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on V. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their target price on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Monness Crespi & Hardt reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 20th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $308.34 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $561.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $251.61 and a 52-week high of $312.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $288.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $276.84.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS 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 issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 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.