Castle Hook Partners LP Acquires New Shares in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Castle Hook Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 353,592 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $111,749,000. Visa makes up 1.4% of Castle Hook Partners LP’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 4.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $12,729,901,000 after acquiring an additional 1,689,926 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in Visa by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,526,660,000 after purchasing an additional 866,596 shares during the period. Capital World Investors increased its position in Visa by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $7,356,614,000 after purchasing an additional 241,057 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in Visa by 18.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,785,707 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V opened at $348.67 on Tuesday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $337.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $325.48. The firm has a market cap of $647.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.15, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.51 earnings per share. Visa’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 Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $185,576.46. This represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 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 stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,121,041.50. This represents a 17.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 143,208 shares of company stock valued at $48,905,978. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on V. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America boosted their target price on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $362.38.

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.