Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Purchased by Archford Capital Strategies LLC

Archford Capital Strategies LLC boosted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 34.6% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 46,388 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,919 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 2.4% of Archford Capital Strategies LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 6th biggest holding. Archford Capital Strategies LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $16,257,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of V. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $5,171,271,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Visa by 38,416.3% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,173,271,000 after purchasing an additional 14,723,050 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the fourth 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 period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at $1,955,403,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,248,079,000 after acquiring an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, June 13th. Macquarie reduced their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Visa has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $372.80.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total value of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $188,186.28. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,121,041.50. This trade represents a 17.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 101,098 shares of company stock valued at $36,738,526 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Down 1.6%

V stock opened at $345.87 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $375.51. The firm has a market cap of $638.19 billion, a PE ratio of 34.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $352.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $339.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 1.08.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 52.86% and a return on equity of 56.28%. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.51 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research 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 was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 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.