Tradewinds LLC. Makes New $8.56 Million Investment in Visa Inc. $V

Tradewinds LLC. bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 25,083 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $8,563,000. Visa comprises approximately 2.1% of Tradewinds LLC.’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Sonoma Allocations LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $710,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Visa by 1.8% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,241,348 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $438,196,000 after acquiring an additional 21,401 shares during the last quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Visa by 7.5% during the second quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $564,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 95,150 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $33,783,000 after buying an additional 5,295 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at $862,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Macquarie cut their price objective on shares of Visa from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 price objective on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Raymond James Financial reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $408.00 target price (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Citigroup raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 23rd. Finally, Erste Group Bank downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Four research 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 data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $402.52.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $328.41 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $598.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.17, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $339.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $343.18. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $299.00 and a 52 week high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a net margin of 50.15% and a return on equity of 60.31%. The company had revenue of $10.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.60 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.71 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast 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. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were issued a $0.67 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.25%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $183,117. The trade was a 95.13% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through 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 transaction of $707,919.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,608,789.09. This trade represents a 7.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 24,042 shares of company stock valued at $8,247,289. Company insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.