Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. Acquires 12,806 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.5% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 377,861 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,806 shares during the quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $132,425,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% during 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 purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Visa by 4.4% during 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 during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in Visa by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,526,660,000 after buying an additional 866,596 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,356,614,000 after buying an additional 241,057 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its position in shares of Visa by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,771,116,000 after buying an additional 2,785,707 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $338.04 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $351.78 and its 200-day moving average is $338.94. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $623.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.97, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 52.86% and a return on equity of 56.28%. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.51 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.72%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho upgraded Visa from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research report on Thursday, June 5th. Evercore ISI started coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an “in-line” rating and a $330.00 target price for the company. Macquarie dropped their price target on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $372.80.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total transaction of $3,020,792.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $188,186.28. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $889,868.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,121,041.50. This represents a 17.76% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 101,098 shares of company stock valued at $36,738,526. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.