Mariner LLC Has $279.27 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Mariner LLC raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 883,689 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 27,617 shares during the quarter. Mariner LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $279,274,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after acquiring an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Visa by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,729,901,000 after purchasing an additional 1,689,926 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,171,271,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa by 6.2% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,241,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,868,646,000 after purchasing an additional 718,558 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 9,758,703 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,084,141,000 after buying an additional 173,990 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $333.69 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $342.40 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $319.09. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $619.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

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.