Criteria Caixa S.A.U. Makes New Investment in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Criteria Caixa S.A.U. acquired a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 57,678 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $18,229,000. Visa comprises approximately 2.6% of Criteria Caixa S.A.U.'s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Mendel Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Visa by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Mendel Capital Management LLC now owns 3,516 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,111,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Whalerock Point Partners LLC lifted its position in Visa by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Whalerock Point Partners LLC now owns 51,542 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $16,289,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. Betterment LLC lifted its position in Visa by 4.7% during the 4th quarter. Betterment LLC now owns 830 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $262,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Shorepoint Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in Visa by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Shorepoint Capital Partners LLC now owns 12,105 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,826,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Mission Creek Capital Partners Inc. now owns 22,441 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $7,092,000 after acquiring an additional 311 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the 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 $2,930,800.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the stock. UBS Group boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna reaffirmed a "positive" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $358.17.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V traded up $2.39 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $337.56. 5,415,972 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,204,056. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $338.07 and a 200 day moving average of $323.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $627.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.03, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating 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, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. 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.