Federated Hermes Inc. Increases Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Federated Hermes Inc. raised its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 582,195 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,287 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $183,997,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its position in Visa by 0.6% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,242,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after buying an additional 411,210 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $69,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in Visa by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 246,217 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $67,698,000 after buying an additional 17,347 shares in the last quarter. Finally, iA Global Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.4% during the third quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 526,069 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $144,643,000 after acquiring an additional 17,493 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently commented on V. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 28th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa 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 owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Down 7.6 %

Visa stock opened at $313.46 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $345.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $317.07. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The company has a market capitalization of $582.34 billion, a PE ratio of 31.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.