Baker Avenue Asset Management LP Has $6.24 Million Stake in Visa Inc. $V

Baker Avenue Asset Management LP increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 16.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 17,563 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,474 shares during the period. Baker Avenue Asset Management LP’s holdings in Visa were worth $6,236,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund lifted its position in Visa by 14.5% during the first quarter. Fjarde AP Fonden Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund now owns 455,183 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $159,523,000 after purchasing an additional 57,800 shares during the period. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 7.5% in the 2nd quarter. Precedent Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,588 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $564,000 after buying an additional 111 shares in the last quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.9% during the 2nd quarter. Baltimore Washington Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 95,150 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $33,783,000 after acquiring an additional 5,295 shares during the period. Consilium Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $862,000. Finally, Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC increased its stake in Visa by 5.9% in the first quarter. Iron Gate Global Advisors LLC now owns 62,890 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $22,040,000 after acquiring an additional 3,484 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total transaction of $3,575,385.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares in the company, valued at $183,117. This represents a 95.13% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.48, for a total transaction of $302,832.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have sold 24,042 shares of company stock valued at $8,175,152. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and set a $408.00 target price (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Erste Group Bank cut Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 target price on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Finally, UBS Group set a $425.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have issued a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $399.52.

Visa Trading Up 1.2%

NYSE V opened at $330.92 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $602.85 billion, a PE ratio of 32.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 0.82. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $338.75 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $345.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $299.00 and a 12 month high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 28th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.97 by $0.01. Visa had a return on equity of 60.31% and a net margin of 50.15%.The company had revenue of $10.72 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.60 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.71 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 11.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were paid a $0.67 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 26.25%.

Visa 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.