Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Purchased by First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 17.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 36,572 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 5,400 shares during the period. Visa makes up 0.9% of First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Visa were worth $9,522,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of V. 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 purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Destiny Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in Visa by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Destiny Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,668 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $433,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. lifted its position in Visa by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Sunflower Bank N.A. now owns 3,143 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $818,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Parker Financial LLC lifted its position in Visa by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. Parker Financial LLC now owns 925 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $241,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Patron Partners LLC lifted its position in Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Patron Partners LLC now owns 4,295 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,118,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 19,874 shares of company stock valued at $5,506,827 over the last three months. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on V shares. Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Mizuho reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $302.58.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock traded down $1.29 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $267.32. 6,037,363 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,938,064. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $490.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $216.14 and a 12 month high of $290.96. The business’s 50-day moving average is $278.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $265.19.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.24%.

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.