Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super Purchases New Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super acquired a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 289,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $91,428,000. Visa comprises approximately 1.5% of Aware Super Pty Ltd as trustee of Aware Super’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 48.5% during 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 last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $333.69 on Monday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $342.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $319.09. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The firm has a market cap of $619.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.64, a P/E/G 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.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS 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%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $2,930,800.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $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 have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.