Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Raises Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 8,434,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 274,975 shares during the period. Visa accounts for about 0.6% of Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 12th largest position. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned about 0.45% of Visa worth $2,665,730,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in V. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC grew its position in Visa by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Hirtle Callaghan & Co LLC now owns 2,291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $724,000 after acquiring an additional 29 shares in the last quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.3% in the 4th quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 939 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $297,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Warther Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,935 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $928,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Valmark Advisers Inc. now owns 7,251 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,292,000 after purchasing an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Strategic Family Wealth Counselors L.L.C. now owns 7,283 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,302,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490 over the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $329.26 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $611.69 billion, a PE ratio of 33.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $340.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $320.44.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com cut shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

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.