Investment Partners Asset Management Inc. Makes New Investment in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Investment Partners Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 2,822 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $735,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of V. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Financial Freedom LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 545.5% during the third quarter. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC now owns 142 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FNY Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in Visa by 227.7% during the third quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 154 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on V shares. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Monness Crespi & Hardt began coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, December 20th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eighteen have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $295.82.

Visa Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $276.72 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $508.20 billion, a PE ratio of 31.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $280.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $260.98. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.14 and a 1 year high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.18 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.94%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 55,511 shares of company stock worth $15,131,081. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.