Meyer Handelman Co. Increases Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Meyer Handelman Co. increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 86,443 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,507 shares during the quarter. Meyer Handelman Co.’s holdings in Visa were worth $27,319,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 45,189.4% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,683,101,000 after purchasing an additional 9,736,958 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 4,412.3% during the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,119,725,000 after purchasing an additional 4,166,905 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd 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 last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in Visa by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 7.7% during the third 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 during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of V stock opened at $316.45 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $589.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.52, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $312.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $287.65. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $321.61.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.33 earnings per share. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on V shares. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Mizuho raised their price target on Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Macquarie upped their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $331.92.

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.