Sentinus LLC Purchases 155 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Sentinus LLC raised its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 5.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,996 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 155 shares during the period. Sentinus LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $947,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,248,079,000 after acquiring an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,771,116,000 after acquiring an additional 2,785,707 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. The trade was a 59.84% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 value of $3,129,060.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $194,931. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 121,948 shares of company stock valued at $41,548,282. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $362.38.

Visa Trading Up 0.8%

NYSE V opened at $365.23 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $338.59 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $329.34. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The company has a market capitalization of $678.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.82, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.57 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $2.51 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.65%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.72%.

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.