Flputnam Investment Management Co. Grows Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Flputnam Investment Management Co. raised its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 220,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 16,611 shares during the period. Visa comprises 1.3% of Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings, making the stock its 15th biggest holding. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $69,597,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,000. Finally, POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Visa Stock Up 2.1 %

V stock opened at $363.33 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $333.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $305.66. The company has a market capitalization of $674.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $364.00.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating 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, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date is 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.