Coign Capital Advisors LLC Acquires New Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Coign Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 3,043 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $962,000. Visa accounts for 0.9% of Coign Capital Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after acquiring an additional 7,079,706 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,248,079,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926,049 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,729,901,000 after purchasing an additional 1,689,926 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Evercore ISI began coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday. They set an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Visa Stock Down 2.4 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $324.57 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $342.63 and its 200-day moving average is $318.32. 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 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company has a market capitalization of $602.97 billion, a PE ratio of 32.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm 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. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.73%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,991,249.33. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,842,490. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.