Martin Currie Ltd. Has $45.47 Million Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Martin Currie Ltd. raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 193.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 143,859 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 94,913 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 1.7% of Martin Currie Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding. Martin Currie Ltd.’s holdings in Visa were worth $45,465,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $355.84.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $342.62 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $343.60 and a 200-day moving average of $315.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $636.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.54, 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 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

About Visa

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.