Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Sold by BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A.

BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. cut its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,887,263 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after selling 61,915 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 1.3% of BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A.'s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. owned approximately 0.10% of Visa worth $518,903,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. WFA Asset Management Corp raised its position in Visa by 4.6% in the first quarter. WFA Asset Management Corp now owns 2,263 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $632,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Rodgers Brothers Inc. raised its position in Visa by 64.0% in the first quarter. Rodgers Brothers Inc. now owns 1,857 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $518,000 after acquiring an additional 725 shares in the last quarter. Guardian Capital LP raised its position in Visa by 5.8% in the first quarter. Guardian Capital LP now owns 2,691 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $751,000 after acquiring an additional 147 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its position in Visa by 441.8% in the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,052,442 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $293,716,000 after acquiring an additional 858,180 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Visa by 3.1% in the first quarter. Stonebridge Capital Advisors LLC now owns 64,463 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $17,990,000 after acquiring an additional 1,913 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Macquarie raised their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. BNP Paribas upgraded Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and set a $325.00 price target for the company in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Susquehanna raised their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. 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's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $307.39 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $560.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $250.03 and a 1-year high of $312.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $288.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $276.84.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This is a positive change from Visa's previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa's payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 3rd. The stock was 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 directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company's stock.

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.

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