Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd. Buys 1,077 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd. raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 16.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 7,532 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,077 shares during the period. Analyst IMS Investment Management Services Ltd.’s holdings in Visa were worth $2,381,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its position in Visa by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,400 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,919,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100 shares during the last quarter. Northwest Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $244,000. King Wealth Management Group grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,663,000 after purchasing an additional 6,172 shares during the last quarter. Aviso Financial Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Aviso Financial Inc. now owns 284,617 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $89,950,000 after purchasing an additional 7,764 shares during the last quarter. Finally, May Barnhard Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $383,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of several research reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Trading Down 1.5 %

NYSE V opened at $327.98 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $609.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.06, a P/E/G 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 has a 50 day moving average price of $337.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $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 released 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, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 64,505 shares of company stock worth $22,290,507 over the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.