MJP Associates Inc. ADV Grows Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

MJP Associates Inc. ADV increased its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 66.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,912 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,365 shares during the quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,650,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its stake in Visa by 3.1% in the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 15,926 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,663,000 after acquiring an additional 486 shares during the last quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 8.7% in the third quarter. AlphaCore Capital LLC now owns 13,801 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,174,000 after acquiring an additional 1,106 shares during the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 31.8% in the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 13,997 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,220,000 after purchasing an additional 3,379 shares during the period. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. raised its position in shares of Visa by 15.8% in the third quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 79,140 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $18,203,000 after purchasing an additional 10,798 shares during the period. Finally, Joseph Group Capital Management raised its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the third quarter. Joseph Group Capital Management now owns 8,400 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,932,000 after purchasing an additional 597 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Wedbush upped their target price on shares of Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $303.76.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $275.22 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $225.50 and a 52-week high of $290.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $503.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a fifty day moving average of $273.97 and a 200-day moving average of $273.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.09 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 34,402 shares of company stock valued at $9,559,382 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.