Generali Asset Management SPA SGR Acquires Shares of 144,626 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Generali Asset Management SPA SGR acquired a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 144,626 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $45,708,000. Visa accounts for approximately 1.2% of Generali Asset Management SPA SGR’s holdings, making the stock its 17th biggest holding.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in V. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,248,079,000 after buying an additional 3,926,049 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 0.8 %

V opened at $334.35 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $621.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $338.39 and its 200-day moving average is $311.61. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on V shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective 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. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Piper Sandler reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 price target (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 103,855 shares of company stock valued at $35,165,827. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.