100,000 Shares in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Purchased by Blackstone Inc.

Blackstone Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 100,000 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $31,604,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC raised its position in Visa by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $348.67 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $647.75 billion, a PE ratio of 35.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The company's 50-day moving average price is $337.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $325.48. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share 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 analysts' expectations of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The business's revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.51 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. StockNews.com downgraded Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted 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. Susquehanna reaffirmed a "positive" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Bank of America increased their price objective on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seven 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $362.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total value of $815,313.84. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,488 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total value of $3,129,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $194,931. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 143,208 shares of company stock valued at $48,905,978 in the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Company 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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.