Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Buys 6,036 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. lifted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 160,086 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,036 shares during the quarter. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s holdings in Visa were worth $50,594,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 6.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,549 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,188,862,000 after acquiring an additional 123,927 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,168,096,000 after acquiring an additional 670,590 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of V stock opened at $330.20 on Monday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $314.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $290.59. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $331.09. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm has a market capitalization of $615.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.94, a PEG ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. Visa’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.25%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on V shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America increased their price target on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $331.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $335.52.

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.