Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.1% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 231,510 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,334 shares during the quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $82,198,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter valued at about $3,518,533,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Visa by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,082,431 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,452,949,000 after purchasing an additional 1,677,088 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Visa by 17.7% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,847,953,000 after buying an additional 1,651,954 shares during the period. MUFG Securities EMEA plc purchased a new stake in Visa in the 1st quarter worth approximately $373,240,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 7.2% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 14,277,146 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,003,569,000 after buying an additional 955,392 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $329.89 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $299.00 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $342.16 and a 200 day moving average of $348.69. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company has a market capitalization of $604.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 0.87.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.60 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on V shares. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group set a $425.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up previously from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $398.00 price objective on Visa and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seventeen have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $400.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 23,897 shares of company stock valued at $8,164,561. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.