&Partners Boosts Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

&Partners lifted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 42.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 15,420 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,622 shares during the period. &Partners’ holdings in Visa were worth $4,303,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth $33,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 0.6 %

V opened at $275.22 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $503.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $225.50 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 50-day moving average of $273.97 and a 200 day moving average of $273.14.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on V shares. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Macquarie raised their price target on Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Mizuho raised their price target on Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $303.76.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value 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 sold 34,402 shares of company stock worth $9,559,382 over the last 90 days. Company 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.