Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Acquired by Meitav Investment House Ltd.

Meitav Investment House Ltd. increased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 37.8% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 266,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 73,015 shares during the period. Visa makes up about 1.4% of Meitav Investment House Ltd.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Meitav Investment House Ltd.’s holdings in Visa were worth $84,149,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Reston Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter valued at $31,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings 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 last quarter. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $348.27 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $329.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $302.34. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $357.15. The firm has a market cap of $647.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.11, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97. 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447 in the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on V shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Bank of America upped their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

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.