CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co Grows Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 6.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,986,217 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 112,406 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 1.1% of CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co's holdings, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co owned about 0.11% of Visa worth $627,922,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on V. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reaffirmed a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $355.84.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84 % 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. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V traded down $2.07 during trading on Friday, reaching $329.26. 5,640,095 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,227,437. The firm has a market capitalization of $611.69 billion, a PE ratio of 33.19, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. 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 Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company's 50 day moving average is $340.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $320.44.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict 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 was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

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.