Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Stock Position Boosted by Welch Group LLC

Welch Group LLC boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 10.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 34,716 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 3,270 shares during the period. Welch Group LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $11,902,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in Visa by 3.9% in the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 80,793 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $28,312,000 after acquiring an additional 3,049 shares in the last quarter. Summit Global Investments acquired a new stake in Visa during the 1st quarter valued at $232,000. Tompkins Financial Corp grew its holdings in Visa by 19.6% during the 1st quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp now owns 238 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $83,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake 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 valued at $5,173,271,000 after acquiring an additional 14,723,050 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its stake in shares of Visa by 4.3% during the first quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 7,110 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $2,492,000 after acquiring an additional 295 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $363.00, for a total transaction of $3,129,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $194,931. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 14,813 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 26,413 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,377,671.52. This trade represents a 35.93% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 121,948 shares of company stock worth $41,548,282 in the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Visa from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Evercore ISI began coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. They set an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price target for the company. Finally, William Blair reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $366.13.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE V traded up $3.03 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $365.43. The company's stock had a trading volume of 8,725,642 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,016,173. The firm has a market cap of $674.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $343.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $333.54. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $369.15. 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 (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.68 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.57 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. The business's revenue was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.51 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. Visa's payout ratio is currently 23.72%.

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.