Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Purchased by Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC.

Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC. increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,710 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the quarter. Astoria Portfolio Advisors LLC.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,278,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Macquarie boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Mizuho boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price target on the stock. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $303.56.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $262.47 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $273.88 and a 200 day moving average price of $273.50. 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 company has a market capitalization of $480.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $227.68 and a 52-week high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. The business 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%. The company’s revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Activity

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