Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management LLP Takes $27.43 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 100,000 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $27,425,000. Visa comprises about 2.5% of Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management LLP’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest holding.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.4% in the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,833,981,000 after buying an additional 345,829 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,783,857,000 after buying an additional 312,286 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,168,096,000 after buying an additional 670,590 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Visa by 45,189.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,683,101,000 after acquiring an additional 9,736,958 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were 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 owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Compass Point began coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $321.74.

Visa Stock Performance

V opened at $314.65 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $251.61 and a 52-week high of $316.37. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The company has a market cap of $586.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $290.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $278.06.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly 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. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. 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 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.