Gradient Investments LLC Has $53.03 Million Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Gradient Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 151,312 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,599 shares during the period. Visa makes up 1.1% of Gradient Investments LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position. Gradient Investments LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $53,029,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. NewSquare Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, FPC Investment Advisory Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 377.3% in the fourth quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 105 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Citigroup restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Macquarie lowered their target price on Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $366.13.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $2,978,899.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $185,576.46. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 14,813 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $355.04, for a total value of $5,259,207.52. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,377,671.52. The trade was a 35.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 113,328 shares of company stock worth $38,419,222 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 0.8%

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $365.43 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $674.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $369.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $343.40 and its 200 day simple moving average is $333.88.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $2.51 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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