Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 10.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 43,551 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 4,294 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up approximately 1.1% of Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $11,339,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Visa by 3.7% in the first 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 during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Visa by 13.0% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,621,287,000 after purchasing an additional 5,864,340 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $11,582,785,000 after purchasing an additional 2,257,605 shares during the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 116,608.6% in the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 24,483,134 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,927,122,000 after purchasing an additional 763,505 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other 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 value of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 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. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 18,965 shares of company stock valued at $5,256,352. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on V. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Citigroup increased 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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price target on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $298.43.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $269.78 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $279.58 and a 200 day moving average of $263.35. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.14 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $495.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.04, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 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 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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

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.