Aristides Capital LLC Grows Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Aristides Capital LLC increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 12.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 7,850 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 850 shares during the period. Aristides Capital LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,481,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Ashburton Jersey Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 35.4% in the 4th quarter. Ashburton Jersey Ltd now owns 72,831 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $23,018,000 after acquiring an additional 19,057 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 582,195 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $183,997,000 after purchasing an additional 12,287 shares during the last quarter. Gator Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Gator Capital Management LLC now owns 2,391 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $756,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares during the period. Alcosta Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. Alcosta Capital Management Inc. now owns 14,103 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,457,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Finally, Waterloo Capital L.P. grew its position in Visa by 24.9% in the 4th quarter. Waterloo Capital L.P. now owns 12,642 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,995,000 after buying an additional 2,524 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $313.46 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $582.34 billion, a PE ratio of 31.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month 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. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $345.02 and a 200-day simple moving average of $317.07.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Barclays lifted their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Bank of America upped their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total value of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $188,186.28. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 in the last quarter. 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.