300 Shares in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Bought by Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd

Pilgrim Partners Asia Pte Ltd bought a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 300 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $95,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in V. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,248,079,000 after buying an additional 3,926,049 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 7.6 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $313.46 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The stock has a market cap of $582.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $345.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $316.89.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on V. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

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.