Define Financial LLC Acquires Shares of 747 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Define Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $236,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in V. Custom Index Systems LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at about $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $616,000. FORA Capital LLC bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $7,987,000. Chicago Capital LLC increased its position in Visa by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $111,331,000 after acquiring an additional 20,023 shares during the period. Finally, Nexus Investment Management ULC raised its stake in Visa by 5,034.0% during the 3rd quarter. Nexus Investment Management ULC now owns 56,371 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,499,000 after acquiring an additional 55,273 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $309.24 on Wednesday. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $321.61. The company has a market capitalization of $576.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.78, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $312.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $287.65. The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 53.16% and a net margin of 54.96%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $2.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 24.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have weighed in on V. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $308.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.92.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.