Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) is Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC’s Largest Position

Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC lowered its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 311,681 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 2,097 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 5.2% of Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its largest holding. Waters Parkerson & CO. LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $98,504,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its position in Visa by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 4,927 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,557,000 after acquiring an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. Capital & Planning LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 21.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital & Planning LLC now owns 949 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $300,000 after buying an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Woodstock Corp grew its stake in shares of Visa by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Woodstock Corp now owns 36,844 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,644,000 after acquiring an additional 218 shares during the period. Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC raised its stake in Visa by 14.0% during the 4th quarter. Yarger Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 2,309 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $730,000 after acquiring an additional 283 shares during the period. Finally, Procyon Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 68,681 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,706,000 after buying an additional 2,943 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on V. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $362.38.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total value of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $188,186.28. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 121,948 shares of company stock valued at $41,548,282. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $365.23 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $673.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.82, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $338.59 and its two-hundred day moving average is $329.89.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.51 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.72%.

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.