RiverFront Investment Group LLC Raises Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

RiverFront Investment Group LLC lifted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 19.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 32,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 5,343 shares during the quarter. RiverFront Investment Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $10,231,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after acquiring an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,248,079,000 after buying an additional 3,926,049 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its stake in Visa by 4.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 2.1 %

NYSE V opened at $342.62 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a PE ratio of 34.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $343.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $315.06.

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 the consensus estimate 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 forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on V. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays boosted their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Raymond James reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa 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.