Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by Mawer Investment Management Ltd.

Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.5% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,121,063 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 55,233 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 2.7% of Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position. Mawer Investment Management Ltd.’s holdings in Visa were worth $583,186,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 970.0% during the 2nd quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 211.9% during the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 89 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bbjs Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $321.00 price objective (up previously from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Compass Point assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Up 0.1 %

V stock opened at $310.06 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $245.60 and a 12 month high of $312.44. The firm has a market cap of $565.03 billion, a PE ratio of 31.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $287.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $276.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.