Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 100.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,958 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 981 shares during the quarter. Cookson Peirce & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $619,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in Visa by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $297,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $928,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,292,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 1,437 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $454,000 after acquiring an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vicus Capital lifted its stake in Visa by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Vicus Capital now owns 1,032 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 31 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of a number of research reports. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays upped their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 64,505 shares of company stock worth $22,290,507. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Trading Down 0.0 %

Shares of V stock opened at $352.18 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $335.17 and a 200 day simple moving average of $307.55. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $654.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

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, topping 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%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Visa 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.