The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Boosts Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 20.7% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,056,012 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 352,389 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 0.7% of The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned 0.11% of Visa worth $729,973,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at about $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 14.6% during the second quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,769,936,000 after buying an additional 2,429,996 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Visa by 17.7% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 10,979,720 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,847,953,000 after buying an additional 1,651,954 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $57,711,249,000 after buying an additional 1,461,575 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,253,245,000 after buying an additional 1,067,631 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total value of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,468 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total value of $707,919.96. Following the sale, the insider owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,608,789.09. This represents a 7.60% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 24,042 shares of company stock valued at $8,175,152 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on V. Hsbc Global Res upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday. Bank of America upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $382.00 target price for the company in a research report on Thursday. Citigroup raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. UBS Group set a $425.00 price target on shares of Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $400.35.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $325.57 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $337.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $345.38. The firm has a market cap of $593.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.82. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $299.00 and a 12 month high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.60 billion. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.71 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 26.25%.

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.