GAMMA Investing LLC Purchases New Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 18,117 shares of the credit-card processor's stock, valued at approximately $4,951,000. Visa accounts for approximately 1.3% of GAMMA Investing LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the third quarter worth approximately $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 545.5% during the third quarter. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC now owns 142 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 120 shares during the period. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 1,019.2% during the third quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 291 shares of the credit-card processor's stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 265 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Finally, Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $302.58.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 18,965 shares of company stock valued at $5,256,352. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company's stock.

Visa Price Performance

V traded up $0.93 on Wednesday, reaching $275.04. 8,804,958 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 5,913,914. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45. The stock has a market cap of $505.11 billion, a PE ratio of 31.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.96. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $279.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $263.90. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $216.14 and a twelve month high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. Visa's revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. Visa's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.94%.

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.