Ethic Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ethic Inc. raised its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 14.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 157,367 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 20,323 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 1.0% of Ethic Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Ethic Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $49,734,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of V. Riverstone Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $217,000. Blue Rock Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $306,000. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 19.8% during the fourth quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 182,658 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $57,727,000 after acquiring an additional 30,185 shares during the last quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC increased its position in Visa by 16.4% during the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. Finally, King Wealth Management Group raised its stake in Visa by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $23,663,000 after purchasing an additional 6,172 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

V has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 16th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Raymond James reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price target (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Evercore ISI began coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 price target for the company. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $362.38.

Visa Stock Up 0.6 %

V stock opened at $351.91 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $653.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $336.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $326.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results 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 business had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.51 EPS. Visa’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 23.72%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 107,135 shares of company stock worth $36,289,074 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.