Castleark Management LLC Decreases Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Castleark Management LLC lowered its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 176,105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,814 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up approximately 2.0% of Castleark Management LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest position. Castleark Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $48,420,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% in 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 during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in 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 worth $1,119,725,000 after purchasing an additional 4,166,905 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in Visa by 4.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 26,951.9% in the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 1,587,944 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $416,788,000 after purchasing an additional 1,582,074 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of V stock opened at $310.89 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $579.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.95, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $295.00 and its 200 day moving average is $279.46. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $317.42.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective on the stock. Mizuho boosted their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $317.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $322.00 to $326.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.