Freestone Grove Partners LP Makes New $926,000 Investment in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Freestone Grove Partners LP purchased a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,929 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $926,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after buying an additional 411,210 shares during the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in Visa by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,079,682 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,292,321,000 after purchasing an additional 14,778 shares in the last quarter. Pensionfund Sabic boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 43.1% during the 4th quarter. Pensionfund Sabic now owns 16,600 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,246,000 after purchasing an additional 5,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CWA Asset Management Group LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC now owns 64,287 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $20,317,000 after purchasing an additional 1,965 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock traded up $1.07 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $348.67. The stock had a trading volume of 3,864,472 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,225,084. The stock's 50 day moving average is $337.61 and its 200 day moving average is $325.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $647.75 billion, a PE ratio of 35.15, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.51 earnings per share. Visa's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. Visa's payout ratio is currently 23.72%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,575 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $889,868.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,121,041.50. The trade was a 17.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 143,208 shares of company stock worth $48,905,978. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on V. StockNews.com lowered shares of Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target 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.