ACT Advisors LLC. Purchases Shares of 574 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

ACT Advisors LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 574 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $201,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Visa by 4.4% during the fourth 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 raised its stake in Visa by 3.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,526,660,000 after purchasing an additional 866,596 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake in Visa by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,356,614,000 after purchasing an additional 241,057 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake 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 valued at $5,771,116,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785,707 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $362.77, for a total transaction of $3,127,077.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $194,807.49. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total transaction of $12,875,320.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. 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 worth $41,546,299 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $368.04 on Thursday. 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 firm’s 50-day moving average is $344.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $334.72. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $371.75. The company has a market capitalization of $679.09 billion, a PE ratio of 37.10, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly 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. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $2.51 EPS. Analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.72%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on V shares. Macquarie cut their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Monday. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Monday. They issued a “neutral” rating on the stock. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $367.48.

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.