Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Purchases 2,496 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC increased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 35.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 9,487 shares of the credit-card processor's stock after purchasing an additional 2,496 shares during the quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC's holdings in Visa were worth $2,998,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $29,242,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $1,576,366,000 after purchasing an additional 411,210 shares during the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter worth about $69,000. Passumpsic Savings Bank grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Passumpsic Savings Bank now owns 9,137 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $2,512,000 after purchasing an additional 179 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Virtu Financial LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 101.5% in the 3rd quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 44,984 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $12,368,000 after purchasing an additional 22,658 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE V opened at $335.50 on Monday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $338.42 and a 200 day simple moving average of $322.98. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The stock has a market cap of $623.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.82, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.94.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. Analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.70%. Visa's payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. Raymond James reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Visa from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $358.17.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $2,930,800.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,842,490. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.

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