Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is Taurus Asset Management LLC’s 7th Largest Position

Taurus Asset Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 121,173 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,773 shares during the period. Visa makes up 3.2% of Taurus Asset Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding. Taurus Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $33,317,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of V. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position 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 valued at $2,683,101,000 after acquiring an additional 9,736,958 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 4,412.3% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,119,725,000 after purchasing an additional 4,166,905 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 787.1% in the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,619,881 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,296,820,000 after purchasing an additional 4,099,122 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at approximately $511,321,000. Finally, GQG Partners LLC grew its stake in Visa by 40.1% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,990,634 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,671,866,000 after purchasing an additional 1,715,686 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of a number of research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 price target (up from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. William Blair raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Compass Point began coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price on the stock. 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. The trade was 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. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $309.64 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $564.26 billion, a PE ratio of 31.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $287.04 and its 200-day moving average price is $276.01. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $245.60 and a twelve month high of $312.44.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during 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 firm’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. 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 yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. 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.