Kennedy Capital Management LLC Invests $5.36 Million in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Kennedy Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 19,203 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $5,359,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nadler Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Nadler Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,900 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $495,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares in the last quarter. Towerpoint Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $216,000. Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $3,427,000. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC now owns 75,421 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $19,636,000 after purchasing an additional 795 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cedrus LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 10.1% in the 4th quarter. Cedrus LLC now owns 2,010 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $523,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock traded up $1.76 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $264.86. 996,742 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,860,647. The company has a quick ratio of 1.37, a current ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The business has a 50-day moving average of $269.44 and a 200 day moving average of $274.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $484.41 billion, a PE ratio of 29.39, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $227.78 and a fifty-two week high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.16 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.91 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, August 9th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.79%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on V. Wedbush upped their price target on shares of Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on Visa from $322.00 to $319.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $322.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Visa from $315.00 to $311.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $307.25.

Insider Activity 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 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 approximately $4,959,322.10. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is 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.