Fayez Sarofim & Co Has $1.08 Billion Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Fayez Sarofim & Co increased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,397,604 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 108,121 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 2.6% of Fayez Sarofim & Co’s holdings, making the stock its 8th largest position. Fayez Sarofim & Co owned 0.18% of Visa worth $1,084,482,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 16.4% during the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361 shares during the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group lifted its holdings in Visa by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,663,000 after purchasing an additional 6,172 shares during the last quarter. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $10,163,000. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in Visa in the third quarter valued at about $616,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on V. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $329.26 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $611.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.19, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $340.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $321.05.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share 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%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.