Generali Investments Management Co LLC Acquires New Shares in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Generali Investments Management Co LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,439 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $1,403,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. GM Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 6.1% in the 4th quarter. GM Advisory Group LLC now owns 12,830 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $4,055,000 after buying an additional 743 shares in the last quarter. GCQ FUNDS MANAGEMENT PTY Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $47,974,000. Investment House LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Investment House LLC now owns 47,806 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $15,109,000 after acquiring an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 520.0% during the fourth quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 12,432 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $3,932,000 after acquiring an additional 10,427 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vinva Investment Management Ltd increased its position in Visa by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 84,777 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $26,731,000 after purchasing an additional 9,837 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Down 0.9 %

Visa stock traded down $2.99 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $336.51. 17,254,663 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,730,029. 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 50 day moving average price of $340.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $313.06. The firm has a market cap of $625.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54.

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Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company 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. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961 over the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. William Blair reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. Raymond James reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $353.96.

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.