Simplicity Wealth LLC Buys Shares of 3,938 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Simplicity Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,938 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $1,025,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 116,608.6% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,504,130 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,090,978,000 after buying an additional 24,483,134 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,067,232,000. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Visa by 13.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,621,287,000 after buying an additional 5,864,340 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,233,338,000 after buying an additional 4,710,188 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 72,897,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,435,339,000 after purchasing an additional 2,572,159 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $271.28 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.14 and a 1 year high of $290.96. The firm has a market cap of $498.21 billion, a PE ratio of 31.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $280.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $262.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The company had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.18 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.94%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James increased their target price on Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup increased their target price on Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Susquehanna increased their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $296.87.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of Visa 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 55,511 shares of company stock valued at $15,131,081. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.