Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Acquired by Barings LLC

Barings LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 14.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,261 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 163 shares during the quarter. Barings LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $399,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.5 %

Visa stock opened at $345.79 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $642.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $336.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $308.63. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 64,505 shares of company stock worth $22,290,507 in the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa 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.