44 Wealth Management LLC Increases Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

44 Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 14.4% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 5,879 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 739 shares during the quarter. 44 Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,060,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of V. Sovereign Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $424,000. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in Visa by 50.1% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,522,000 after buying an additional 6,883 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in Visa by 68.9% during the fourth quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,733,000 after buying an additional 4,817 shares during the period. Leverage Partners Absolute Return Fund SPC purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $204,000. Finally, Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its position in Visa by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 639,608 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $202,142,000 after acquiring an additional 14,367 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 1.3%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $358.70 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $355.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $341.46. The firm has a market cap of $661.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.05, a PEG ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 0.92.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 56.28% and a net margin of 52.86%. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.51 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total value of $3,053,466.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $190,001.34. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the sale, the general counsel owned 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,121,041.50. This represents a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 101,108 shares of company stock worth $36,771,200. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Evercore ISI assumed coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 target price on the stock. Mizuho raised Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Citigroup initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $372.84.

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.