Americana Partners LLC Buys 10,573 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Americana Partners LLC increased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 25.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 52,207 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 10,573 shares during the quarter. Americana Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $16,500,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after buying an additional 2,772,549 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 1.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,188,862,000 after purchasing an additional 123,927 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 6.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,168,096,000 after purchasing an additional 670,590 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $354.95 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $659.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.78, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.97. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $327.75 and its 200 day moving average is $301.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $357.15.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on V shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Mizuho lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Macquarie lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $354.73.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 58,056 shares of company stock valued at $19,830,050. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.