Geode Capital Management LLC Acquires 1,689,926 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 4.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 1,689,926 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 1.0% of Geode Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Geode Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $12,729,901,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Riverstone Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $217,000. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Journey Strategic Wealth LLC now owns 9,678 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,361 shares in the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group raised its stake in Visa by 9.0% during the fourth quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $23,663,000 after acquiring an additional 6,172 shares in the last quarter. Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $10,163,000. Finally, Copley Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth $616,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America boosted their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Five 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.84.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V opened at $350.68 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $344.22 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $315.95. The company has a market capitalization of $651.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.35, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

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 expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This represents a 34.19 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa 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.