Cullen Investment Group LTD. Makes New $9.75 Million Investment in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Cullen Investment Group LTD. acquired a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 37,466 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $9,754,000. Visa makes up about 1.7% of Cullen Investment Group LTD.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th biggest position.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of V. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 116,608.6% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,504,130 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,090,978,000 after purchasing an additional 24,483,134 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $3,067,232,000. Morgan Stanley lifted its stake 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 period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,233,338,000 after acquiring an additional 4,710,188 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its stake 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 period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,716,662.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,511 shares of company stock valued at $15,131,081 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $271.34 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $279.93 and a 200 day moving average price of $262.49. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.14 and a 52 week high of $290.96. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $498.32 billion, a PE ratio of 31.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.55 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.18 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 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. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price objective on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. TD Cowen began coverage on Visa in a report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Raymond James increased their price target on Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $296.87.

Visa 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.