Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Has $3 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 35.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,487 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,496 shares during the quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,998,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 0.6% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,576,366,000 after buying an additional 411,210 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth about $69,000. Passumpsic Savings Bank lifted its holdings in Visa by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 9,137 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,512,000 after buying an additional 179 shares during the period. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 101.5% during the 3rd quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 44,984 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,368,000 after buying an additional 22,658 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $335.50 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $623.28 billion, a PE ratio of 33.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50 day moving average of $338.42 and a 200 day moving average of $322.98. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly 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%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on V shares. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 price objective (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $358.17.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 over the last ninety days. Company 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.