Dudley & Shanley Inc. Has $30.86 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Dudley & Shanley Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 97,636 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 50 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 4.8% of Dudley & Shanley Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 4th biggest holding. Dudley & Shanley Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $30,857,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of V. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the third quarter worth $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $616,000. FORA Capital LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $7,987,000. Chicago Capital LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC increased its holdings in Visa by 5,034.0% during the 3rd quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,499,000 after purchasing an additional 55,273 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock traded up $0.18 on Friday, reaching $314.58. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,034,338 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,653,823. The company has a market capitalization of $586.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.33, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $321.61. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $309.06 and its 200-day simple moving average is $285.28. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.33 earnings per share. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Macquarie lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $329.70.

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.