Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Acquired by Royal London Asset Management Ltd.

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,915,983 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 181,117 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 2.2% of Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th largest position. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. owned about 0.16% of Visa worth $921,567,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,663,000 after purchasing an additional 6,172 shares during the last quarter. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $10,163,000. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $616,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. The trade was a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 103,855 shares of company stock worth $35,165,827 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

V opened at $334.30 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $338.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $312.02. The stock has a market cap of $621.06 billion, a PE ratio of 33.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, topping 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%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on V shares. Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Barclays lifted their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. UBS Group lifted their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

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.