Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC Raises Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 31.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 4,363 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,035 shares during the period. Foster Dykema Cabot & Partners LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,379,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA lifted its holdings in Visa by 16.9% in the fourth quarter. First Commonwealth Financial Corp PA now owns 5,226 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,652,000 after acquiring an additional 757 shares during the period. Capital Square LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $217,000. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. now owns 146,692 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $46,360,000 after purchasing an additional 1,323 shares during the period. Coleford Investment Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $23,651,000. Finally, Greenwood Gearhart Inc. grew its position in Visa by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Greenwood Gearhart Inc. now owns 48,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,171,000 after buying an additional 3,340 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America raised their price target on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total value of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $188,186.28. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Price Performance

V opened at $331.35 on Thursday. 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 quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $341.55 and its 200 day simple moving average is $319.71. The stock has a market capitalization of $615.57 billion, a PE ratio of 33.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

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.