Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Bought by Abacus Planning Group Inc.

Abacus Planning Group Inc. raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 23.9% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 2,019 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 389 shares during the quarter. Abacus Planning Group Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $707,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. NewSquare Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, FPC Investment Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 377.3% in the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on V. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Mizuho upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price target for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday. UBS Group upped their price objective on Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Evercore ISI started coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 target price on the stock. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $372.80.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $370.44 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $371.83. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $345.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $335.88. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $683.52 billion, a PE ratio of 37.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.51 EPS. Visa’s revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $889,868.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,121,041.50. This trade represents a 17.76% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,991,249.33. This trade represents a 59.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 168,162 shares of company stock valued at $58,645,479. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.