Edgewood Management LLC Sells 954,453 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Edgewood Management LLC cut its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 11.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,185,334 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 954,453 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 5.3% of Edgewood Management LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th largest position. Edgewood Management LLC owned approximately 0.39% of Visa worth $1,975,608,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 49 Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 34.5% in the third quarter. 49 Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,521 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $968,000 after purchasing an additional 904 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Visa by 14.7% in the third quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 36,905 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $10,147,000 after purchasing an additional 4,726 shares in the last quarter. Activest Wealth Management raised its holdings in Visa by 32.3% in the third quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 545 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $150,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Visa by 6.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,168,096,000 after purchasing an additional 670,590 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Banco Santander S.A. raised its holdings in Visa by 2.6% in the third quarter. Banco Santander S.A. now owns 210,360 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $57,838,000 after purchasing an additional 5,394 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Mizuho raised their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $317.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of Visa from a "moderate buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total transaction of $2,382,309.40. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Down 0.1 %

Visa stock traded down $0.16 during trading on Friday, reaching $309.74. 3,855,160 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,952,565. The company's 50-day moving average is $289.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $277.08. 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 Inc. has a 52-week low of $251.61 and a 52-week high of $312.44. The firm has a market cap of $564.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.84, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.33 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be 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 is Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.25%.

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.