Ransom Advisory Ltd Takes $3.42 Million Position in Visa Inc. $V

Key Points

• Ransom Advisory Ltd has made a new investment in Visa Inc., purchasing 9,767 shares valued at approximately $3.42 million, which now represents 1.7% of their investment portfolio.
• Visa's recent quarterly earnings report showed an earnings per share of $2.98, exceeding estimates, with a revenue of $10.17 billion—up 14.3% from the previous year.
• Visa announced a quarterly dividend of $0.59 per share, with an annualized dividend yield of 0.7% and a low dividend payout ratio of 23.05%.

Ransom Advisory Ltd purchased a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 9,767 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $3,423,000. Visa makes up approximately 1.7% of Ransom Advisory Ltd's investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Anchor Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 4.0% in the 1st quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC now owns 107,100 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $37,534,000 after purchasing an additional 4,159 shares in the last quarter. Aspen Investment Management Inc lifted its stake in Visa by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Aspen Investment Management Inc now owns 7,334 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,570,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares in the last quarter. Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its stake in Visa by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 324,160 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $113,605,000 after purchasing an additional 6,200 shares in the last quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 0.8% in the 1st quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 20,735 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $7,267,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Advisory Alpha LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 10.9% in the 1st quarter. Advisory Alpha LLC now owns 5,592 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,960,000 after purchasing an additional 548 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $410.00 price objective for the company. Mizuho raised shares of Visa from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $359.00 to $425.00 in a research note on Thursday, June 5th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $390.00 to $391.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 2nd. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating for the company. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $385.96.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,027 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.02, for a total transaction of $697,328.54. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel directly owned 11,925 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,102,438.50. The trade was a 14.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,630 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $353.82, for a total transaction of $3,053,466.60. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $190,001.34. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Trading Up 1.5%

Shares of V traded up $5.16 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $343.28. The stock had a trading volume of 5,152,779 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,970,029. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $268.23 and a 1 year high of $375.51. The firm has a market cap of $629.16 billion, a PE ratio of 33.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The stock's 50 day moving average is $347.41 and its 200 day moving average is $347.03.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, July 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.98 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $10.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.82 billion. Visa had a net margin of 52.16% and a return on equity of 58.93%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 14.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.42 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 12th were paid a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 12th. Visa's payout ratio is currently 23.05%.

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.