Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Acquires 373,471 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 758.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 422,705 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 373,471 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in Visa were worth $133,592,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Edgestream Partners L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 27.0% in the second quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 9,860 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,588,000 after buying an additional 2,096 shares during the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 217,597 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $57,113,000 after acquiring an additional 1,078 shares during the period. Charles Lim Capital Ltd lifted its position in Visa by 225.0% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Lim Capital Ltd now owns 325,000 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $85,303,000 after acquiring an additional 225,000 shares during the last quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 8.1% during the second quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,593 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $418,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the period. Finally, Lingotto Investment Management LLP grew its position in shares of Visa by 11.2% in the second quarter. Lingotto Investment Management LLP now owns 32,348 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $8,490,000 after purchasing an additional 3,253 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.92.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of V opened at $316.45 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $312.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $287.65. The firm has a market capitalization of $589.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.52, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $321.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Visa 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.