Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. Grows Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. raised its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 97.8% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,085,618 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 536,724 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $284,966,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 142,202,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $39,685,966,000 after acquiring an additional 788,908 shares during the period. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Visa by 2.7% during the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,570,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,578,025,000 after acquiring an additional 626,618 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Visa by 5.4% during the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 18,863,796 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,264,508,000 after acquiring an additional 968,008 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,610,590 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,833,981,000 after purchasing an additional 345,829 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.2% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 14,416,394 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,783,857,000 after purchasing an additional 312,286 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 1.3 %

V stock opened at $275.17 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $227.78 and a one year high of $293.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.37. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $271.31 and its 200 day moving average is $273.27. The firm has a market cap of $503.27 billion, a PE ratio of 30.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. The firm had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.92 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.16 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 9th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 9th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of several recent research reports. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. William Blair raised shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $322.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $310.22.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $148,687.06. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

About Visa

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.