AQR Capital Management LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,241,348 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,401 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC owned about 0.07% of Visa worth $438,196,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 50.1% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,522,000 after purchasing an additional 6,883 shares during the period. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 68.9% during the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,733,000 after purchasing an additional 4,817 shares during the period. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 10,941 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,834,000 after buying an additional 477 shares in the last quarter. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter worth $121,000. Finally, Lord Abbett & CO. LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 38.6% in the 1st quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 13,148 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,608,000 after buying an additional 3,661 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $347.83 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $299.00 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $337.70 and a 200-day moving average price of $345.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $633.65 billion, a PE ratio of 34.07, a PEG ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.08.

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

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.59. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.25%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 900 shares of Visa 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 sale, the director directly owned 2,468 shares in the company, valued at approximately $830,432.64. The trade was a 26.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $341.00, for a total value of $3,575,385.00. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 24,042 shares of company stock worth $8,175,152. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on V. Raymond James Financial reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $408.00 price target (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. UBS Group set a $425.00 target price on shares of Visa and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. HSBC raised Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $335.00 to $389.00 in a report on Sunday, December 7th. Evercore ISI set a $380.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Friday. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 8th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $402.52.

Visa Company 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.