Holocene Advisors LP Sells 1,628,920 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Holocene Advisors LP trimmed its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 60.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,067,010 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,628,920 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 1.2% of Holocene Advisors LP’s holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Holocene Advisors LP owned 0.06% of Visa worth $293,374,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 970.0% during the second 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 in the last quarter. Reston Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the third quarter valued at $31,000. TruNorth Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 211.9% in the 2nd quarter. TruNorth Capital Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 89 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CarsonAllaria Wealth Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter worth about $35,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Compass Point initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price on the stock. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Susquehanna lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Four equities 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 MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $321.74.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

Visa stock opened at $315.90 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.14 and a 52 week high of $316.37. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $588.48 billion, a PE ratio of 32.38, a PEG ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 0.95. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $292.09 and its 200-day simple moving average is $278.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.33 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter 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 year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. 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.