Cigna Investments Inc. New Boosts Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Cigna Investments Inc. New grew its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,357 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 1,064 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 1.1% of Cigna Investments Inc. New’s holdings, making the stock its 14th biggest position. Cigna Investments Inc. New’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,083,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Brighton Jones LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 50.1% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,522,000 after purchasing an additional 6,883 shares during the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 68.9% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,733,000 after purchasing an additional 4,817 shares during the last quarter. Freestone Grove Partners LP purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $926,000. Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $258,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 12,796,415 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,045,149,000 after purchasing an additional 164,008 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Mizuho raised shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $415.00 price objective (up previously from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, July 30th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have assigned a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $380.84.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 46,214 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.00, for a total transaction of $17,099,180.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,772,810. The trade was a 63.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 68,507 shares of company stock worth $25,213,475. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.6%

Shares of NYSE V opened at $351.92 on Monday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $348.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $347.36. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $268.23 and a 52-week high of $375.51. The firm has a market cap of $645.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.82 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $2.42 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.05%.

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.