Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stake Lifted by Simplicity Solutions LLC

Simplicity Solutions LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 50,384 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,268 shares during the quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $13,118,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Financial Freedom LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 545.5% in the 3rd quarter. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC now owns 142 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE V opened at $275.96 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $506.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.96. The company’s fifty day moving average is $280.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $261.92. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $216.14 and a 52-week high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.18 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 9th were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.94%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, insider Rajat Taneja sold 36,546 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $270.20, for a total transaction of $9,874,729.20. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 232,112 shares in the company, valued at approximately $62,716,662.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 55,511 shares of company stock worth $15,131,081 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently commented on V. Mizuho reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $296.87.

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.