Sfmg LLC Boosts Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sfmg LLC lifted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.5% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 21,520 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for 0.5% of Sfmg LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th largest position. Sfmg LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,006,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of V. Alaethes Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 8,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Jessup Wealth Management Inc boosted its position in Visa by 0.7% during the 1st quarter. Jessup Wealth Management Inc now owns 5,051 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,410,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Visa by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,519 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $424,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Cordatus Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 0.3% in the first quarter. Cordatus Wealth Management LLC now owns 10,793 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,012,000 after buying an additional 37 shares during the period. Finally, Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,191 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $571,000 after buying an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on V. TD Cowen started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $297.00 price objective (down from $305.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $304.44.

Visa Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE V traded up $2.67 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $268.41. The company had a trading volume of 6,843,377 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,872,659. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $272.82 and a two-hundred day moving average of $274.11. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $227.68 and a 12-month high of $290.96. The company has a market capitalization of $490.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.83, a PEG ratio of 1.85 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business posted $2.09 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total value of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,959,322.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.