Castle Hook Partners LP Takes $111.75 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Castle Hook Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 353,592 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $111,749,000. Visa accounts for 1.4% of Castle Hook Partners LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its position in shares of Visa by 377.3% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $889,868.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,121,041.50. The trade was a 17.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,208 shares of company stock worth $48,905,978 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Macquarie dropped their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $362.38.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $348.67 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $647.75 billion, a PE ratio of 35.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $337.57 and a 200-day moving average of $325.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.51 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect 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 paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. 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.