Parnassus Investments LLC Acquires 250,619 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Parnassus Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2,622.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 260,174 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 250,619 shares during the quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $82,225,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 64,505 shares of company stock worth $22,290,507. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on V. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America boosted their price target on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Down 1.5 %

Visa stock opened at $327.98 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $609.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.06, 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 business’s 50-day moving average price is $337.62 and its 200 day moving average price is $310.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.72%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

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.