Lafayette Investments Inc. Increases Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Lafayette Investments Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,364 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 68 shares during the period. Lafayette Investments Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,657,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of V. BCK Partners Inc. purchased a new position in Visa in the first quarter worth $2,717,000. Markel Corp increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Markel Corp now owns 961,105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $213,144,000 after purchasing an additional 3,065 shares in the last quarter. AMI Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the first quarter valued at about $2,323,000. Ergoteles LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the first quarter worth about $538,000. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new position in Visa during the first quarter worth about $1,496,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 18,965 shares of company stock worth $5,256,352 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of V opened at $269.78 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.14 and a fifty-two week high of $290.96. The company has a market capitalization of $495.45 billion, a PE ratio of 31.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $279.58 and a two-hundred day moving average of $263.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The business had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.55 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.18 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Susquehanna boosted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Redburn Atlantic restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $307.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Mizuho reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $298.43.

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.