Rafferty Asset Management LLC Grows Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 610,517 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 43,546 shares during the period. Rafferty Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $192,948,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $724,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. FWL Investment Management LLC now owns 6,344 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,005,000 after purchasing an additional 29 shares during the last quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $297,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $928,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Valmark Advisers Inc. raised its stake in shares of Visa by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,292,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,121,041.50. The trade was a 17.76% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 121,948 shares of company stock valued at $41,548,282 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $356.11 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year 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 stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $337.51 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $328.23. The stock has a market cap of $661.57 billion, a PE ratio of 35.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.51 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.72%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI assumed 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie reduced their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $362.38.

Visa Company 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.