Czech National Bank Increases Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Czech National Bank grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 5.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 395,830 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after acquiring an additional 21,142 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 1.3% of Czech National Bank's investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Czech National Bank's holdings in Visa were worth $138,723,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 1,689,926 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $7,526,660,000 after purchasing an additional 866,596 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.0% in 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 increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 18.0% in 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 last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the topic of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 target price for the company. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $367.48.

Visa Stock Up 0.2%

NYSE V traded up $0.80 on Tuesday, reaching $366.12. 5,221,297 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,005,162. 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 fifty day moving average price of $343.82 and a 200-day moving average price of $334.27. The company has a market cap of $675.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.91, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $252.70 and a 12 month high of $369.15.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Visa's revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.51 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th were paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 14,813 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $355.04, for a total transaction of $5,259,207.52. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,377,671.52. This represents a 35.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $350.44, for a total value of $3,020,792.80. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $188,186.28. The trade was a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 113,328 shares of company stock valued at $38,419,222 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.