Graham Capital Management L.P. Acquires Shares of 12,424 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Graham Capital Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 12,424 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $3,926,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Ground Swell Capital LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at $292,000. Francis Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in Visa by 100.1% in the fourth quarter. Francis Financial Inc. now owns 1,597 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $505,000 after acquiring an additional 799 shares during the last quarter. Ethic Inc. increased its position in Visa by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Ethic Inc. now owns 157,367 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $49,734,000 after purchasing an additional 20,323 shares during the period. Ewing Morris & Co. Investment Partners Ltd. bought a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $1,409,000. Finally, Fiduciary Trust Co boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Fiduciary Trust Co now owns 135,392 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $42,789,000 after purchasing an additional 1,534 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Macquarie lowered their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $362.38.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total value of $3,020,792.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $188,186.28. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $352.95 on Friday. 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 market capitalization of $655.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $366.54. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $336.98 and a 200-day moving average of $327.02.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.51 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.72%.

About Visa

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.