Entropy Technologies LP Takes $3.42 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 12,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $3,419,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of V. Alaethes Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Alaethes Wealth LLC now owns 8,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,302,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Jessup Wealth Management Inc raised its holdings in Visa by 0.7% during the first quarter. Jessup Wealth Management Inc now owns 5,051 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,410,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Visa by 2.5% during the first quarter. Long Run Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,519 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $424,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Cordatus Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings 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 valued at $3,012,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Garden State Investment Advisory Services LLC increased its position in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently commented on V. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective for the company. Macquarie raised their price target on Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $304.44.

Visa Trading Up 1.3 %

V traded up $3.51 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $272.76. 5,323,535 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,868,612. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $272.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $274.22. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $227.68 and a 1 year high of $290.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market cap of $498.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.09 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

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.