Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co Has $87.02 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co lessened its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 331,541 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 6,359 shares during the period. Visa comprises 0.7% of Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Visa were worth $87,020,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brio Consultants LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 39.1% during the 4th quarter. Brio Consultants LLC now owns 1,555 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $405,000 after acquiring an additional 437 shares in the last quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.9% during the fourth quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 5,629 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,466,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Aveo Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $730,000 after purchasing an additional 235 shares during the period. 9258 Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 20.8% in the 4th quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,043 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,094,000 after purchasing an additional 1,387 shares during the period. Finally, Gryphon Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 53.8% in the 4th quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 13,640 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,282,000 after buying an additional 4,774 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other 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 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Compass Point began coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective on the stock. William Blair upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $309.54.

Visa Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE V traded up $0.75 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $279.37. The company had a trading volume of 7,187,805 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,125,969. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $227.78 and a one year high of $290.96. The company has a market capitalization of $510.95 billion, a PE ratio of 31.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.96. 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 firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $266.53 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $273.13.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $2.42. The business had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.72% and a return on equity of 51.94%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.16 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.92 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s payout ratio 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.