Traynor Capital Management Inc. Buys 3,570 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Traynor Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 49,408 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,570 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 1.0% of Traynor Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Traynor Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $15,615,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $616,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,847,000 after buying an additional 4,198 shares during the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after buying an additional 20,023 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $330.20 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $314.54 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $289.98. The firm has a market cap of $615.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.94, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $331.09.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on V. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays upped their target price on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Macquarie upped their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on Visa from $314.00 to $331.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $334.58.

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.