Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Purchased by Stamos Capital Partners L.P.

Stamos Capital Partners L.P. boosted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 54.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 11,120 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 3,900 shares during the quarter. Stamos Capital Partners L.P.'s holdings in Visa were worth $3,514,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

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Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,991,249.33. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total transaction of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the sale, 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on V. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reissued an "outperform" rating and set a $393.00 target price (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. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Bank of America upped their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

V stock traded up $0.70 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $335.88. 4,383,107 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,242,081. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $366.54. The stock's 50 day moving average is $341.89 and its 200 day moving average is $319.63. 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. On average, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend 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.