PFG Investments LLC Increases Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

PFG Investments LLC increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,362 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 867 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 0.6% of PFG Investments LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 29th biggest position. PFG Investments LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $3,218,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 116,608.6% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,504,130 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,090,978,000 after acquiring an additional 24,483,134 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $3,067,232,000. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Visa by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,621,287,000 after acquiring an additional 5,864,340 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 2.5% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 126,912,205 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $30,139,110,000 after acquiring an additional 3,070,682 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Visa by 3.7% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 72,897,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $16,435,339,000 after acquiring an additional 2,572,159 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have weighed in on V. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $280.00 to $295.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 12th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $309.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Monness Crespi & Hardt started coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, December 20th. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 47,311 shares of company stock worth $12,832,129 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE V traded up $0.05 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $281.26. 8,748,794 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,655,137. The company has a market cap of $516.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.37, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.14 and a 1 year high of $290.96. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $278.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $258.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The business had revenue of $8.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.18 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.94%.

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.