Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC Increases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC boosted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 52.3% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 2,469 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 848 shares during the period. Franklin Street Advisors Inc. NC’s holdings in Visa were worth $689,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $3,895,015,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,233,338,000 after buying an additional 4,710,188 shares in the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 1,489,856 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Visa by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,895,788 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,659,169,000 after buying an additional 1,323,238 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors grew its position in Visa by 139.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 2,185,077 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $568,885,000 after acquiring an additional 1,272,211 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $266.62 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $487.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.97. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $274.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $273.41. Visa Inc. has a 12 month low of $226.02 and a 12 month high of $290.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.24%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the business’s 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 owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 34,402 shares of company stock worth $9,559,382 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on V shares. Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Macquarie increased their target price on Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Wedbush upped their price objective on shares of Visa from $280.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $303.56.

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.