Visa Inc. $V Shares Purchased by Vertex Planning Partners LLC

Vertex Planning Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 20.1% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 957 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 160 shares during the quarter. Vertex Planning Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $335,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of V. Keystone Global Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth $26,000. von Borstel & Associates Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth $27,000. Measured Risk Portfolios Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $47,000. Navigoe LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $53,000. Finally, O Brien Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the first quarter worth $54,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Macquarie boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $380.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Mizuho raised shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-two have issued a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $380.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. This represents a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total transaction of $4,363,500.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,904,875. This trade represents a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 77,127 shares of company stock valued at $28,340,553. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Down 0.1%

V opened at $342.51 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $627.75 billion, a PE ratio of 33.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $349.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $347.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $265.31 and a 12-month high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The firm’s revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.42 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.05%.

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.