AQR Capital Management LLC Has $325.62 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.2% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,030,318 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 41,165 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $325,622,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $358.17.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $337.56 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54. The company has a market cap of $627.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.03, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $338.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $323.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS 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%. Equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490 over the last ninety days. 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.