Boston Common Asset Management LLC Grows Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Boston Common Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 33.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 86,329 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,651 shares during the quarter. Visa makes up about 0.8% of Boston Common Asset Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 27th biggest position. Boston Common Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $27,283,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 49.9% in the fourth quarter. Relyea Zuckerberg Hanson LLC now owns 14,911 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,713,000 after acquiring an additional 4,963 shares during the last quarter. CNB Bank boosted its stake in Visa by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. CNB Bank now owns 10,822 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,420,000 after acquiring an additional 168 shares during the last quarter. Saxon Interests Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 16.4% in the fourth quarter. Saxon Interests Inc. now owns 2,031 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $642,000 after acquiring an additional 286 shares during the last quarter. Avanza Fonder AB purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,193,000. Finally, Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Wealthcare Advisory Partners LLC now owns 36,300 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,472,000 after acquiring an additional 386 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have weighed in on V shares. Macquarie boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $321.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.92.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Visa stock opened at $319.97 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $313.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $288.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market cap of $596.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $252.70 and a fifty-two week high of $321.61.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The company had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.33 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.74%. This is a positive change from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

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.