Principal Securities Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Principal Securities Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 5.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 68,959 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 3,659 shares during the period. Principal Securities Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $21,794,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $217,000. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth $731,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $3,058,000 after acquiring an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter worth $616,000. Finally, Calamos Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Calamos Wealth Management LLC now owns 77,443 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $24,475,000 after acquiring an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company's stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

V traded down $2.22 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $348.27. The company had a trading volume of 6,910,504 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,753,988. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The business has a 50-day moving average of $328.47 and a two-hundred day moving average of $301.39. The company has a market cap of $647.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $357.15.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa's payout ratio is 23.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of several analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America boosted 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. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Mizuho upped their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $355.31.

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.