Parker Financial LLC Grows Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Parker Financial LLC grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 925 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the quarter. Parker Financial LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $241,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Visa by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 74,133,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $17,605,106,000 after purchasing an additional 1,235,891 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Visa by 13.0% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,621,287,000 after purchasing an additional 5,864,340 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,582,785,000 after purchasing an additional 2,257,605 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 116,608.6% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 24,483,134 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position in shares of Visa by 5.7% in the 2nd quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 18,879,347 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,483,466,000 after purchasing an additional 1,015,104 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Monness Crespi & Hardt assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, December 20th. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Visa from $280.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 12th. Susquehanna increased their price objective on Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Redburn Atlantic reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $295.82.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at $62,716,662.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the sale, the insider now owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,716,662.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 47,311 shares of company stock valued at $12,832,129 in the last three months. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock traded down $0.24 on Thursday, reaching $278.78. 5,844,191 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,650,746. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45. The company’s 50-day moving average is $279.11 and its two-hundred day moving average is $258.66. The firm has a market cap of $511.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.14 and a 1-year high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.18 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. 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.