Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE Takes $529,000 Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE bought a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 1,508 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $529,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $5,171,271,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 38,416.3% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 14,761,375 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $5,173,271,000 after purchasing an additional 14,723,050 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings 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 worth $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $1,955,403,000. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,248,079,000 after acquiring an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Citigroup initiated coverage on Visa in a research note on Monday, June 2nd. They issued a "buy" rating on the stock. Mizuho raised 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. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on Visa from $383.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 30th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $372.80.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $188,186.28. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 11,636 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.00, for a total value of $4,363,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at $9,904,875. The trade was a 30.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 140,448 shares of company stock valued at $50,133,659. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Down 5.0%

Shares of NYSE:V traded down $18.65 during trading on Friday, reaching $352.75. 14,176,249 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,023,528. 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 Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $375.51. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $348.87 and a two-hundred day moving average of $337.17. The firm has a market cap of $650.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. 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 prior year, the firm earned $2.51 earnings per share. Visa's revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date was 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.