Bamco Inc. NY Has $53.06 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Bamco Inc. NY raised its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 12.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 190,107 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,786 shares during the period. Bamco Inc. NY’s holdings in Visa were worth $53,055,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of V. Westend Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Livelsberger Financial Advisory bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Vermillion & White Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total value of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.19% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock traded up $5.72 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $259.46. 7,062,213 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,558,497. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $227.78 and a 12-month high of $290.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $474.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.99, a PEG ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $270.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $274.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.37 and a quick ratio of 1.40.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.42 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $2.42. Visa had a return on equity of 51.94% and a net margin of 54.72%. The company had revenue of $8.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.92 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.16 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 9th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.80%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on the company. Citigroup lowered their target price on Visa from $321.00 to $319.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Visa from $325.00 to $300.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. William Blair raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 23rd. Macquarie reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $318.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Six research 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, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $307.25.

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.