Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Raises Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 7.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,927,565 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 135,022 shares during the quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership’s holdings in Visa were worth $609,188,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the 4th 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. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $342.62 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $343.60 and a 200-day simple moving average of $315.27. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The firm has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.54, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 posted its quarterly earnings data 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%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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 value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.