Everest Management Corp. Invests $1.51 Million in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Everest Management Corp. acquired a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 4,762 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $1,505,000. Visa comprises approximately 1.3% of Everest Management Corp.'s portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of V. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its stake in Visa by 0.6% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $29,242,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,576,366,000 after purchasing an additional 411,210 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $69,000. Passumpsic Savings Bank boosted its position in Visa by 2.0% in the third quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 9,137 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $2,512,000 after buying an additional 179 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC grew its stake in Visa by 101.5% during the third quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 44,984 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $12,368,000 after buying an additional 22,658 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. 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 report on Monday, February 3rd. Bank of America lifted their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Evercore ISI began coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

V traded down $2.07 on Friday, hitting $329.26. 5,640,095 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,231,438. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week 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 firm has a 50-day moving average price of $341.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $320.08. The stock has a market cap of $611.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued 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, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $188,186.28. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.