Nicholas Investment Partners LP Buys Shares of 842 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Nicholas Investment Partners LP acquired a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 842 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $266,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC increased its position in Visa by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in Visa during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, FPC Investment Advisory Inc. increased its position in Visa by 377.3% during the 4th quarter. FPC Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 105 shares of the credit-card processor's stock valued at $36,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Citigroup reissued a "neutral" rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Evercore ISI started coverage on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 9th. They issued an "in-line" rating and a $330.00 price objective on the stock. Raymond James restated an "outperform" rating and issued a $393.00 target price (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods restated a "hold" rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-one have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $362.38.

Visa Stock Up 0.8%

V traded up $2.93 on Friday, hitting $365.23. 5,829,909 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,022,771. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $338.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $329.34. The company has a market cap of $678.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 13th will be issued a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 13th. Visa's payout ratio is currently 23.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $345.58, for a total transaction of $2,978,899.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $185,576.46. This represents a 94.14% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 121,948 shares of company stock valued at $41,548,282 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company's stock.

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.