Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stock Position Boosted by Blue Whale Capital LLP

Blue Whale Capital LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 14.9% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 233,746 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 30,346 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 5.0% of Blue Whale Capital LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest position. Blue Whale Capital LLP’s holdings in Visa were worth $64,268,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Arjuna Capital lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the second quarter. Arjuna Capital now owns 11,851 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,111,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $731,000. Mechanics Bank Trust Department lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 8.0% during the second quarter. Mechanics Bank Trust Department now owns 32,460 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $8,520,000 after purchasing an additional 2,410 shares during the period. Chicago Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.2% during the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the period. Finally, Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted its holdings in Visa by 9.3% in the second quarter. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft now owns 58,655 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,299,000 after acquiring an additional 4,988 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have commented on V shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, September 12th. BNP Paribas raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $325.00 target price for the company in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Piper Sandler lifted their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Compass Point assumed coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price target for the company. Four 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. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $309.92 on Monday. 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 firm has a market cap of $577.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.85, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $251.61 and a 12-month high of $312.44. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $289.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $277.34.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Visa Profile

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.