Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Purchased by Empirical Asset Management LLC

Empirical Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 128.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 113,750 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 63,871 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up approximately 1.1% of Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest holding. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $35,950,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Visa by 4.4% in the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 77,764 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $20,411,000 after acquiring an additional 3,306 shares during the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.3% in the second quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 14,857 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,900,000 after purchasing an additional 1,007 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 155,918 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $40,924,000 after purchasing an additional 7,015 shares during the last quarter. Trust Investment Advisors lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.8% during the second quarter. Trust Investment Advisors now owns 4,958 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,301,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares during the period. Finally, Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.8% during the second quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 59,630 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,651,000 after purchasing an additional 3,249 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

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 shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Monness Crespi & Hardt restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their price target on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.92.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $319.97 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $596.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.88, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $313.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $288.06. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $321.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

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.