Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Bought by Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 79,773 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 79 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises 0.5% of Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co’s portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest position. Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co’s holdings in Visa were worth $25,211,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Pennington Partners & CO. LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $578,000. South Plains Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $1,967,000. Blue Rock Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $306,000. BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd purchased a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $339,000. Finally, Cypress Advisory Group LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth $2,816,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Macquarie lowered their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $362.38.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now 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 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $342.40 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $337.69 and a 200-day moving average of $324.10. The company has a market cap of $636.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.