Choate Investment Advisors Raises Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Choate Investment Advisors grew its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 103,770 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 768 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 0.8% of Choate Investment Advisors’ holdings, making the stock its 18th largest position. Choate Investment Advisors’ holdings in Visa were worth $32,818,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in Visa by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 2,059,111 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $566,153,000 after buying an additional 199,440 shares in the last quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the third quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares during the period. Pettinga Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $228,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after purchasing an additional 411,210 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $660,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 in the company, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 103,855 shares of company stock valued at $35,165,827 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $331.72 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $616.26 billion, a PE ratio of 33.44, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $337.96 and a 200-day simple moving average of $310.62.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, analysts predict 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, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

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.