Clare Market Investments LLC Purchases New Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Clare Market Investments LLC purchased a new stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 2,839 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $897,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,241,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,868,646,000 after acquiring an additional 718,558 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,188,862,000 after acquiring an additional 123,927 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on V shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $395.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $345.79 on Monday. 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 Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $642.41 billion, a PE ratio of 34.86, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $336.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $308.92.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 23.79%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the 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 directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 64,505 shares of company stock valued at $22,290,507 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.