Applied Finance Capital Management LLC Boosts Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Applied Finance Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 18,591 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 491 shares during the quarter. Applied Finance Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,876,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Howard Capital Management Group LLC increased its position in Visa by 0.6% during the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,242,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after purchasing an additional 411,210 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $69,000. Raab & Moskowitz Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Raab & Moskowitz Asset Management LLC now owns 10,304 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,833,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 751,674 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $206,673,000 after purchasing an additional 16,346 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE V opened at $311.93 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a market capitalization of $579.50 billion, a PE ratio of 31.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a fifty day moving average of $344.58 and a 200 day moving average of $317.46.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued 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 return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84 % 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 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.