Francis Financial Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Francis Financial Inc. raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 100.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,597 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 799 shares during the period. Francis Financial Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $505,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after acquiring an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,729,901,000 after purchasing an additional 1,689,926 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Visa by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,526,660,000 after purchasing an additional 866,596 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Visa by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,356,614,000 after purchasing an additional 241,057 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Visa by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,771,116,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785,707 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $352.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company has a market capitalization of $655.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s 50-day moving average is $336.98 and its 200-day moving average is $326.72. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.51 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,931. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 121,948 shares of company stock valued at $41,548,282 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $362.38.

About Visa

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.