River Global Investors LLP Acquires New Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

River Global Investors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 16,900 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $4,403,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of V. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% during the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 4,710,188 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 4.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,582,785,000 after purchasing an additional 2,257,605 shares in the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $358,349,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in shares of Visa by 34.1% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,929,979 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $903,955,000 after purchasing an additional 999,167 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Visa by 28.0% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,983,190 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $916,174,000 after purchasing an additional 871,439 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Redburn Atlantic restated a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $303.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 11,724 shares of company stock valued at $3,278,698. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V traded up $0.88 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $268.49. The stock had a trading volume of 3,862,018 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,930,902. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $216.14 and a 12 month high of $290.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $493.08 billion, a PE ratio of 30.00, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $278.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $265.42.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.09 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.24%.

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.