Portland Global Advisors LLC Takes $215,000 Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Portland Global Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 680 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of V. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Visa by 17,018.7% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,248,079,000 after acquiring an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp raised its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Trading Down 2.1 %

V opened at $342.62 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The company has a fifty day moving average of $343.60 and a 200-day moving average of $315.27. The stock has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a PE ratio of 34.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Bank of America raised their price target on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have 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.