Woodstock Corp Buys 744 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Woodstock Corp lifted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.0% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 37,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 744 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up 1.3% of Woodstock Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Woodstock Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $13,173,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in V. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $50,378,465,000 after acquiring an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Visa by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,729,901,000 after acquiring an additional 1,689,926 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its stake in Visa by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,526,660,000 after acquiring an additional 866,596 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,356,614,000 after acquiring an additional 241,057 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Visa by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,771,116,000 after acquiring an additional 2,785,707 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the 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 owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $188,186.28. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on V. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group increased their price objective on Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $366.13.

Visa Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of V stock opened at $365.43 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization 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 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $369.15. The business has a 50-day moving average of $343.40 and a 200 day moving average of $333.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.51 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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. 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 (DPR) is currently 23.72%.

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.