Optimize Financial Inc Acquires New Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Optimize Financial Inc bought a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,193 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $377,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 buying an additional 7,079,706 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,248,079,000 after buying an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake 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 valued at $12,729,901,000 after acquiring an additional 1,689,926 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on V shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, April 7th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group boosted their target price on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $355.84.

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Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total value of $3,020,792.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $188,186.28. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.2 %

V traded up $0.70 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $335.88. 4,382,507 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,254,069. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The company's fifty day moving average price is $342.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $319.51. The company has a market cap of $623.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

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 analysts' consensus estimates 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, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

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.