Castle Hook Partners LP Invests $111.75 Million in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

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

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position 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 valued at $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,248,079,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926,049 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in Visa by 18.0% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. The trade was a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business'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 $2,978,899.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $185,576.46. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,208 shares of company stock valued at $48,905,978 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on V. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James restated an "outperform" rating and set a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $362.38.

Visa Price Performance

V traded up $2.06 during trading on Thursday, reaching $351.91. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,150,768 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,199,819. The company has a market cap of $653.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.48, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $337.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $325.80. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. 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 (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted 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 business had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.51 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's payout ratio is 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.