Perennial Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 38,519 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Perennial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund purchased 38,519 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $12,174,000. Visa accounts for about 2.6% of Perennial Advisors LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vermillion Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $262,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of Visa by 38.0% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,455,500 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $776,036,000 after purchasing an additional 675,567 shares during the last quarter. Forum Financial Management LP increased its position in shares of Visa by 13.7% during the 4th quarter. Forum Financial Management LP now owns 10,047 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,175,000 after purchasing an additional 1,208 shares during the last quarter. Sunbeam Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $365,000. Finally, Montchanin Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $201,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 14,813 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was 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 directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $9,377,671.52. This trade represents a 35.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value 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 trade represents a 17.76% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie reduced their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $362.38.

Visa Stock Down 1.1%

NYSE V opened at $354.04 on Friday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $653.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $369.15. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $341.47 and a 200-day moving average price of $331.92.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion during 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.51 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict 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 $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.