Cozad Asset Management Inc. Has $1.77 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Cozad Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,612 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 180 shares during the quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,774,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of V. Swedbank AB raised its stake in Visa by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $566,153,000 after purchasing an additional 199,440 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC raised its stake in Visa by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $228,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,576,366,000 after purchasing an additional 411,210 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $660,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 103,855 shares of company stock worth $35,165,827. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.8 %

Visa stock opened at $334.35 on Tuesday. 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 Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $366.54. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $338.39 and its 200 day moving average is $311.61. The company has a market capitalization of $621.15 billion, a PE ratio of 33.70, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of several analyst reports. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

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.