Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stake Raised by Wright Investors Service Inc.

Wright Investors Service Inc. lifted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.8% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 20,763 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 1,322 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 2.4% of Wright Investors Service Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,277,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $217,000. Blue Rock Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $306,000. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in Visa by 19.8% during the 4th quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 182,658 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $57,727,000 after purchasing an additional 30,185 shares in the last quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. Finally, King Wealth Management Group boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 6,172 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.8%

V opened at $365.43 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $343.40 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $333.71. 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 market cap of $674.28 billion, a PE ratio of 36.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $369.15.

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 the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The firm’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.51 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.72%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Macquarie decreased their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $366.13.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total value of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $188,186.28. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were 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. This represents a 59.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 121,948 shares of company stock valued at $41,548,282. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.