Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. Boosts Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 3.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 342,203 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 11,086 shares during the period. Visa comprises 2.3% of Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.'s portfolio, making the stock its 10th biggest holding. Ferguson Wellman Capital Management Inc.'s holdings in Visa were worth $119,929,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Blue Rock Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $306,000. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC raised its position in Visa by 19.8% in the fourth quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 182,658 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $57,727,000 after purchasing an additional 30,185 shares in the last quarter. King Wealth Management Group raised its position in Visa by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. King Wealth Management Group now owns 74,874 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $23,663,000 after purchasing an additional 6,172 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC raised its position in Visa by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Eagle Strategies LLC now owns 2,568 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $811,000 after purchasing an additional 63 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Generali Investments CEE investicni spolecnost a.s. acquired a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $10,163,000. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 28th. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price objective for the company. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Monday, June 2nd. They set a "neutral" rating for the company. Finally, Mizuho raised shares of Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a report on Thursday, June 5th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $372.80.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total value of $13,395,133.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,991,249.33. The trade was a 59.84% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 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 $2,978,899.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at $185,576.46. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 140,448 shares of company stock valued at $50,133,659 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Trading Down 5.0%

V traded down $18.65 during trading on Friday, reaching $352.75. 14,176,249 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,023,536. The company's fifty day moving average price is $349.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $337.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $375.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $650.87 billion, a PE ratio of 35.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $2.51 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's dividend payout ratio is presently 23.72%.

About Visa

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.