Wedgewood Partners Inc. Has $34.82 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Wedgewood Partners Inc. cut its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 126,638 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 1,720 shares during the period. Visa comprises 6.5% of Wedgewood Partners Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Wedgewood Partners Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $34,819,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of V. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after acquiring an additional 3,265,518 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,833,981,000 after acquiring an additional 345,829 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in Visa by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,783,857,000 after buying an additional 312,286 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,188,862,000 after buying an additional 123,927 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded Visa from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Macquarie boosted their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $309.08 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $295.00 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $279.46. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $317.42. The stock has a market capitalization of $575.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.77, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

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. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.