Ithaka Group LLC Sells 1,792 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ithaka Group LLC cut its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 72,407 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,792 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 3.8% of Ithaka Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. Ithaka Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $19,908,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its holdings in Visa by 4.6% in the 1st quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,263 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $632,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Guardian Capital LP raised its holdings in Visa by 5.8% in the 1st quarter. Guardian Capital LP now owns 2,691 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $751,000 after buying an additional 147 shares during the last quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $3,609,000. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in Visa by 12.8% during the 1st quarter. Steel Grove Capital Advisors LLC now owns 3,289 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $918,000 after purchasing an additional 372 shares during the period. Finally, Tremblant Capital Group increased its position in Visa by 122.7% during the 1st quarter. Tremblant Capital Group now owns 4,612 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,287,000 after purchasing an additional 2,541 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other 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 transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE V opened at $310.23 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $251.61 and a 12 month high of $312.44. The stock has a market cap of $565.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $289.07 and its 200-day moving average price is $277.08. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. 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 dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point began coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, 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. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

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.