Horizon Investments LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Horizon Investments LLC raised its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,979 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 900 shares during the period. Horizon Investments LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,262,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Visa by 17,018.7% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,248,079,000 after buying an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after buying an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd 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 period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on V shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays increased their target price on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 103,855 shares of company stock worth $35,165,827. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.8 %

V opened at $334.35 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $621.15 billion, a PE ratio of 33.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $338.39 and a 200 day moving average price of $311.61.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

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.