Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Decreases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P lessened its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,856,608 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 209,378 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 3.6% of Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P owned approximately 0.54% of Visa worth $2,710,074,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Unionview LLC lifted its position in Visa by 1.5% during the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $631,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. St. Louis Trust Co increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,068,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. FWG Holdings LLC lifted its position in Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $900,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 0.3% during the third quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,831,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 15.9% in the third quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. This represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Mizuho boosted their target price on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $339.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $321.00 target price (up previously from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie raised their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 20th. Four equities 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 company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V opened at $309.92 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $251.61 and a 12 month high of $312.44. The stock has a market cap of $577.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.85, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50 day moving average is $289.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $277.34.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.33 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.