Arete Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 19.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 22,423 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 3,659 shares during the quarter. Arete Wealth Advisors LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $7,093,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.
Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after acquiring an additional 7,079,706 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.4% in 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 during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $5,171,271,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted 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 purchasing an additional 718,558 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.
Insider Activity
In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total transaction of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $188,186.28. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. Citigroup reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. UBS Group raised their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $355.84.
Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on V
Visa Stock Down 2.1 %
Shares of V traded down $7.19 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $339.14. 8,786,063 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,173,310. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $345.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $316.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a market cap of $630.04 billion, a PE ratio of 34.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54.
Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.
Visa Profile
(
Free Report)
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.
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