MQS Management LLC Makes New $980,000 Investment in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

MQS Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 3,735 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $980,000. Visa comprises approximately 0.6% of MQS Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its position in Visa by 787.1% in the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 4,619,881 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,296,820,000 after purchasing an additional 4,099,122 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the first quarter worth approximately $511,321,000. GQG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 40.1% in the first quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 5,990,634 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,671,866,000 after buying an additional 1,715,686 shares during the last quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. grew its position in Visa by 26,951.9% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 1,587,944 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $416,788,000 after buying an additional 1,582,074 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its holdings in Visa by 14,306.3% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 1,500,270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $390,595,000 after buying an additional 1,489,856 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on V shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 20th. StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. TD Cowen decreased their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $310.22.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $288.46 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $227.78 and a twelve month high of $293.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.37, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $269.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $273.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $525.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.42. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. Visa’s revenue was up 9.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.16 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

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.