St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC Acquires 646 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 13.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,375 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 646 shares during the period. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,500,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Alaethes Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 8,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,302,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Visa by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,191 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $571,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Holistic Financial Partners raised its stake in Visa by 2.0% in the fourth quarter. Holistic Financial Partners now owns 1,975 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $514,000 after buying an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 1,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $317,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Destiny Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Destiny Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,668 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $433,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 2.6 %

V stock opened at $266.62 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $226.02 and a 52-week high of $290.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market cap of $487.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.79, a PEG ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.97. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $274.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $273.41.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.09 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on V. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $320.00 target price for the company. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group raised their target price on Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price target on Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $303.56.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

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.