Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Decreases Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. decreased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 19.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,088 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 6,178 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,929,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in Visa by 4.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in Visa by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,241,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,868,646,000 after purchasing an additional 718,558 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,188,862,000 after purchasing an additional 123,927 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 64,505 shares of company stock valued at $22,290,507. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on V shares. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $351.88 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $334.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $307.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market cap of $653.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.