Ballentine Partners LLC Purchases 2,023 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ballentine Partners LLC grew its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 32,470 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,023 shares during the quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $9,062,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,895,015,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Visa by 17,418.7% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,233,338,000 after buying an additional 4,710,188 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its stake in Visa by 14,306.3% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 1,500,270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $390,595,000 after buying an additional 1,489,856 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its position in Visa by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,895,788 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,659,169,000 after acquiring an additional 1,323,238 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Visa by 139.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 2,185,077 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $568,885,000 after acquiring an additional 1,272,211 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on V shares. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Mizuho upped their target price on Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. UBS Group raised their price target on Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. TD Cowen began coverage on Visa in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $303.76.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V traded up $1.55 during trading on Monday, reaching $276.77. 981,294 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,372,083. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $226.02 and a 12-month high of $290.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock has a market cap of $506.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.75, a PEG ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $273.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $273.14.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.09 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total value of $7,009,954.95. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total value of $7,009,954.95. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $4,959,322.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 34,402 shares of company stock valued at $9,559,382 in the last ninety days. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.