Sonora Investment Management Group LLC Grows Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sonora Investment Management Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 51,835 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 648 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 1.3% of Sonora Investment Management Group LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th biggest holding. Sonora Investment Management Group LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $16,382,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of V. Custom Index Systems LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $616,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its position in Visa by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $23,847,000 after buying an additional 4,198 shares during the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the third quarter valued at about $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC lifted its position in Visa by 5.2% in the third quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after buying an additional 20,023 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $342.05 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $637.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.15, a PEG ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $351.25. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $317.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $293.12. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on V shares. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.27.

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.