Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is Blue Whale Capital LLP’s 8th Largest Position

Blue Whale Capital LLP lessened its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 223,108 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 10,638 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 5.2% of Blue Whale Capital LLP’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest holding. Blue Whale Capital LLP’s holdings in Visa were worth $70,511,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of V. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after acquiring an additional 7,079,706 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in Visa by 17,018.7% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,248,079,000 after buying an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $2,930,800.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 price objective (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $313.46 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $582.34 billion, a PE ratio of 31.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $345.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $317.27.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Visa Company 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.