Jennison Associates LLC Boosts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Jennison Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 11,824,113 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 85,123 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 2.3% of Jennison Associates LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Jennison Associates LLC owned about 0.64% of Visa worth $3,078,408,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Duality Advisers LP increased its stake in shares of Visa by 67.2% in the fourth quarter. Duality Advisers LP now owns 25,503 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,640,000 after purchasing an additional 10,246 shares in the last quarter. Keeler Thomas Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Keeler Thomas Management LLC now owns 16,787 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,370,000 after purchasing an additional 803 shares in the last quarter. GUNN & Co INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT INC. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 1,215.7% in the fourth quarter. GUNN & Co INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT INC. now owns 168,786 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $43,943,000 after purchasing an additional 155,957 shares in the last quarter. Prism Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 29.9% in the fourth quarter. Prism Advisors Inc. now owns 1,302 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $339,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MCF Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the fourth quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 10,084 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,625,000 after purchasing an additional 720 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of V opened at $272.31 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $500.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.34, a PEG ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.45. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.14 and a fifty-two week high of $290.96. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $279.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $263.62.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.34 by $0.07. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The firm had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.55 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.18 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Mizuho restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $265.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $298.43.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 18,965 shares of company stock valued at $5,256,352 over the last three months. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company 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.