Fidelity National Financial Inc. Purchases New Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Fidelity National Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 100,000 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $27,495,000. Visa accounts for approximately 0.5% of Fidelity National Financial Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest holding.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Unionview LLC raised its position in Visa by 1.5% during the third quarter. Unionview LLC now owns 2,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $631,000 after purchasing an additional 33 shares during the period. FWG Holdings LLC increased its holdings in Visa by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. FWG Holdings LLC now owns 3,168 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $900,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. St. Louis Trust Co increased its holdings in Visa by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. St. Louis Trust Co now owns 3,885 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,068,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC boosted its position in Visa by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC now owns 13,933 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,831,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Visa by 15.9% during the 3rd quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 37 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $276.37, for a total value of $2,382,309.40. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $148,687.06. This trade represents a 94.13 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on V. TD Cowen increased their target price on Visa from $318.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Compass Point began coverage on Visa in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $319.00 target price on the stock. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $321.00 target price (up previously from $318.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Macquarie increased their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $321.74.

Visa Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $307.39 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $288.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $276.84. The stock has a market cap of $560.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $250.03 and a 1-year high of $312.44.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.33 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, November 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.25%.

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.