Rhumbline Advisers Boosts Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Rhumbline Advisers increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,308,967 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,348 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 0.9% of Rhumbline Advisers’ investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th largest position. Rhumbline Advisers owned 0.18% of Visa worth $1,045,766,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Visa by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $566,153,000 after acquiring an additional 199,440 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.6% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,242,000 after buying an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 1.9% during the third quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 19,730 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,425,000 after buying an additional 371 shares in the last quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the third quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC now owns 5,688 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,564,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cedrus LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 2.6% in the third quarter. Cedrus LLC now owns 2,257 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $621,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050 in the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $353.73 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market cap of $657.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.66, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 0.97. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $325.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $299.42. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $356.08.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

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.