E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Increases Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 43.2% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 26,601 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 8,021 shares during the quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Visa were worth $9,323,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Visa by 38,416.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,173,271,000 after acquiring an additional 14,723,050 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the first quarter worth $3,518,533,000. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Visa by 18.0% during 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 acquiring an additional 2,785,707 shares during the period. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $673,689,000. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC raised its position in Visa by 295.4% during the fourth quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 2,362,202 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $746,550,000 after acquiring an additional 1,764,781 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $336.80 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $258.74 and a 12-month high of $375.51. The stock has a market cap of $617.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.89, a PEG ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $351.62 and a 200 day moving average price of $347.23. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $10.17 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. Visa’s revenue was up 14.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.42 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, August 12th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.05%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $190,001.34. This trade represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 46,214 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $370.00, for a total transaction of $17,099,180.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,772,810. This trade represents a 63.63% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 75,100 shares of company stock valued at $27,643,224. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on V. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $415.00 price objective (up from $405.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Citigroup began coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Visa from $386.00 to $402.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Five equities research 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, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $380.84.

Visa Company 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.