LMR Partners LLP Buys New Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

LMR Partners LLP bought a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 7,807 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $2,467,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Lionshead Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $271,000. Investor s Fiduciary Advisor Network LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $3,684,000. J. Goldman & Co LP acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $4,398,000. Junto Capital Management LP lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 187.8% during the fourth quarter. Junto Capital Management LP now owns 144,691 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $45,728,000 after purchasing an additional 94,423 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KKM Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. KKM Financial LLC now owns 10,634 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,361,000 after purchasing an additional 411 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. This trade represents a 59.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 121,948 shares of company stock valued at $41,548,282. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on V. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted 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. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $362.38.

Visa Stock Up 0.1%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $356.13 on Wednesday. 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 firm has a market cap of $661.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.90, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $366.54. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $337.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $328.04.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.72%.

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.