GAMMA Investing LLC Makes New $4.95 Million Investment in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 18,117 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $4,951,000. Visa comprises about 1.3% of GAMMA Investing LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest holding.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,233,338,000 after acquiring an additional 4,710,188 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $11,582,785,000 after acquiring an additional 2,257,605 shares during the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth $358,349,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of Visa by 34.1% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,929,979 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $903,955,000 after acquiring an additional 999,167 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 28.0% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,983,190 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $916,174,000 after acquiring an additional 871,439 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 18,965 shares of company stock worth $5,256,352. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Price Performance

V traded up $2.25 on Wednesday, hitting $276.36. 4,181,242 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,853,114. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $279.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $263.90. The firm has a market cap of $507.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $216.14 and a one year high of $290.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.45, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Redburn Atlantic reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $307.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Raymond James increased their price objective on Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their price objective on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Wedbush increased their price objective on Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $302.43.

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.