Lbp Am Sa Increases Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Lbp Am Sa grew its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 767,189 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 36,454 shares during the period. Visa comprises 3.3% of Lbp Am Sa’s portfolio, making the stock its 5th biggest holding. Lbp Am Sa’s holdings in Visa were worth $242,462,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $327.98 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $609.32 billion, a PE ratio of 33.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $337.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $310.18.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays upped their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. StockNews.com lowered Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed 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 on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 64,505 shares of company stock worth $22,290,507 over the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.