Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Acquired by NorthRock Partners LLC

NorthRock Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 98.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 12,639 shares during the quarter. NorthRock Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $8,048,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Visa by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Visa by 17,018.7% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,248,079,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Visa by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,771,116,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785,707 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Up 0.1%

V stock opened at $356.13 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $337.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $328.04. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $661.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.90, 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 (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.51 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue 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 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.72%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $889,868.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,121,041.50. This trade represents a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on V. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 target price on the stock. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $362.38.

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.