Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Grows Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 229,315 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 2,173 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 1.0% of Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th largest holding. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s holdings in Visa were worth $59,702,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 72,897,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,435,339,000 after purchasing an additional 2,572,159 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in Visa by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,621,287,000 after acquiring an additional 5,864,340 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 4.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,582,785,000 after acquiring an additional 2,257,605 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Visa by 116,608.6% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,504,130 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,090,978,000 after purchasing an additional 24,483,134 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,927,122,000 after purchasing an additional 763,505 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total value of $9,874,729.20. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 232,112 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $62,716,662.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. Monness Crespi & Hardt initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, December 20th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 6th. Mizuho restated a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, January 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $296.87.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $271.28 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $498.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.22, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $280.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $262.19. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.14 and a 1 year high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.63 billion for 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.18 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.94%.

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.