Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Purchased by West Coast Financial LLC

West Coast Financial LLC raised its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.6% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 33,000 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 532 shares during the period. Visa makes up 1.1% of West Coast Financial LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position. West Coast Financial LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $9,210,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,895,015,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,233,338,000 after purchasing an additional 4,710,188 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 14,306.3% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 1,500,270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $390,595,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489,856 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,895,788 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,659,169,000 after purchasing an additional 1,323,238 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in shares of Visa by 139.4% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 2,185,077 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $568,885,000 after acquiring an additional 1,272,211 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of several analyst reports. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Redburn Atlantic reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $307.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Macquarie lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Wedbush boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $303.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total transaction of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,959,322.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 34,402 shares of company stock valued at $9,559,382 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $273.66 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company’s fifty day moving average is $274.11 and its 200-day moving average is $273.41. The firm has a market cap of $500.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 0.97. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $226.02 and a 12 month high of $290.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.09 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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

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.