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

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) by 35.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor 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 institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Visa by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $50,378,465,000 after acquiring an additional 7,079,706 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 4.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 40,345,176 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $12,729,901,000 after purchasing an additional 1,689,926 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 3.8% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 23,816,573 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $7,526,660,000 after purchasing an additional 866,596 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its position in Visa by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 23,277,622 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $7,356,614,000 after purchasing an additional 241,057 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter worth $5,171,271,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm's 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $185,576.46. This trade represents a 94.14 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 36,566 shares in the company, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 154,400 shares of company stock worth $52,711,258 over the last ninety days. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on V. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Oppenheimer reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Macquarie dropped their target price on shares of Visa from $400.00 to $380.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $362.38.

Visa Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of V traded up $5.21 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $347.66. 6,112,726 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,238,581. 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 52 week low of $252.70 and a 52 week high of $366.54. The company has a market cap of $645.87 billion, a PE ratio of 35.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $337.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $324.83.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.68 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. The business had revenue of $9.59 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.57 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.51 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, May 13th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.