Terra Alpha Investments LLC Acquires New Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Terra Alpha Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 15,675 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $4,954,000. Visa accounts for about 5.0% of Terra Alpha Investments LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp lifted its position in Visa by 4.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after acquiring an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Visa by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,241,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,868,646,000 after acquiring an additional 718,558 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd 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 acquiring an additional 123,927 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $331.72 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $337.96 and a 200-day moving average of $311.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $616.26 billion, a PE ratio of 33.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. 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 (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. On average, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This trade represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 103,855 shares of company stock valued at $35,165,827 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of research reports. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 12th. Seven research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Visa 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.