Choreo LLC Raises Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Choreo LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 17.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 80,921 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 11,806 shares during the quarter. Choreo LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $25,530,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $31,000. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $44,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on V. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $383.00 target price (up from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Mizuho boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $354.73.

Visa Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $348.26 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $648.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.30 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $351.25. The company’s fifty day moving average is $320.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $295.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS 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%. Equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.2 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 58,056 shares of company stock worth $19,830,050. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.