Convergence Financial LLC Increases Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Convergence Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,908 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the period. Convergence Financial LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,235,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Visa by 4.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 6.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $268,640,000. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $227,342,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of V opened at $363.33 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $364.00. The company has a market cap of $674.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.63, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $333.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $305.34.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results 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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on V shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.