Wright Investors Service Inc. Increases Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Wright Investors Service Inc. boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 16,689 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 707 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 1.2% of Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 21st biggest position. Wright Investors Service Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,345,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Visa by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 72,897,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $16,435,339,000 after buying an additional 2,572,159 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in shares of Visa by 13.0% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,621,287,000 after buying an additional 5,864,340 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,582,785,000 after buying an additional 2,257,605 shares in the last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 116,608.6% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,504,130 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,090,978,000 after buying an additional 24,483,134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position 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 buying an additional 763,505 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were 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 link. In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 18,965 shares of company stock worth $5,256,352. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $269.71 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $495.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $279.58 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $262.89. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $216.14 and a one year high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.55 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.18 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on V. Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their target price on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $298.43.

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.