Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC grew its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 142.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,040 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,200 shares during the quarter. Paradigm Asset Management Co. LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $645,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $297,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $928,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,292,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $454,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vicus Capital grew its stake in shares of Visa by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Vicus Capital now owns 1,032 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $326,000 after buying an additional 31 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Bank of America increased their price target on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Visa Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $348.27 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $647.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $357.15. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $329.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $302.66.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Visa Company 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.