EdgeRock Capital LLC Boosts Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

EdgeRock Capital LLC lifted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 67.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,671 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 672 shares during the quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $463,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in V. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $11,582,785,000 after buying an additional 2,257,605 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,927,122,000 after purchasing an additional 763,505 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,229,004 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,272,846,000 after purchasing an additional 374,489 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 11,824,113 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,078,408,000 after buying an additional 85,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Visa by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 10,524,329 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,725,079,000 after acquiring an additional 141,566 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Macquarie raised their price target on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Redburn Atlantic reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Mizuho upped their target price on Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $303.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 11,724 shares of company stock valued at $3,278,698. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V traded up $3.98 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $276.65. The stock had a trading volume of 6,376,783 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,887,064. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $277.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $266.37. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.14 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The company has a market capitalization of $505.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95. 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 (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. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.