First Manhattan CO. LLC. Increases Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

First Manhattan CO. LLC. boosted its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,253,658 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after buying an additional 5,704 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 1.2% of First Manhattan CO. LLC.'s portfolio, making the stock its 16th biggest position. First Manhattan CO. LLC. owned about 0.07% of Visa worth $399,454,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $5,171,271,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Visa by 4.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% during the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,248,079,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926,049 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in Visa by 18.0% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 18,260,714 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $5,771,116,000 after purchasing an additional 2,785,707 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on V. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $395.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Macquarie decreased their price objective on Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Susquehanna reissued a "positive" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Visa from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 30th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $362.38.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,642,333.60. The trade was a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total value of $2,978,899.60. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at $185,576.46. The trade was a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 107,135 shares of company stock valued at $36,289,074. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE V opened at $351.91 on Friday. The firm's 50-day moving average is $336.96 and its 200-day moving average is $326.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $653.77 billion, a PE ratio of 35.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.51 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Shareholders 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 0.67%. Visa's payout ratio is 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.

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