World Investment Advisors Raises Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

World Investment Advisors lifted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 98,889 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,012 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for about 0.9% of World Investment Advisors’ holdings, making the stock its 19th biggest position. World Investment Advisors’ holdings in Visa were worth $31,253,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Visa by 4.6% during the fourth 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. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 4.4% during 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 purchasing an additional 1,689,926 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $5,171,271,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Visa by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,241,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,868,646,000 after buying an additional 718,558 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Barclays upped their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Stock Up 0.0 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $346.49 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The stock has a market cap of $643.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $345.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $316.58.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,991,249.33. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 134,585 shares of company stock valued at $45,821,697. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.