Atlas Brown Inc. Grows Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Atlas Brown Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 5,381 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 334 shares during the period. Atlas Brown Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,502,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Capital International Investors boosted its position in shares of Visa by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 22,943,773 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,973,432,000 after buying an additional 596,950 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Visa by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,895,788 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,659,169,000 after acquiring an additional 1,323,238 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in Visa by 4.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,927,122,000 after acquiring an additional 763,505 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,895,015,000. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 2.7% in the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,229,004 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,272,846,000 after acquiring an additional 374,489 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total transaction of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 34,402 shares of company stock worth $9,559,382. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $273.62 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $500.43 billion, a PE ratio of 30.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.97. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $273.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $272.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $224.98 and a 1-year high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 6th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group increased their target price on Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Mizuho raised their price objective on Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $303.76.

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.