Rakuten Securities Inc. Takes $133,000 Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 512 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $133,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in Visa by 116,608.6% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,504,130 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,090,978,000 after purchasing an additional 24,483,134 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $3,067,232,000. Morgan Stanley increased its position in Visa by 13.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,621,287,000 after purchasing an additional 5,864,340 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 17,418.7% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,233,338,000 after purchasing an additional 4,710,188 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in Visa by 3.7% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 72,897,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,435,339,000 after purchasing an additional 2,572,159 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently weighed in on V. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Redburn Atlantic reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. TD Cowen began coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $298.43.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other 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 transaction of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now 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 the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was 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 a total of 18,965 shares of company stock worth $5,256,352 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $271.37 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $498.37 billion, a PE ratio of 31.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $279.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $262.62. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $216.14 and a one year high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.55 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.18 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.94%.

About Visa

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.