St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC Raises Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 13.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,375 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 646 shares during the quarter. St. Johns Investment Management Company LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,500,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Livelsberger Financial Advisory purchased a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Westend Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock opened at $266.62 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $274.13 and its 200 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 firm has a market cap of $487.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.79, a P/E/G ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 0.97. 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 issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.78%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. 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. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI cut their price objective on shares of Visa from $335.00 to $330.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target 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. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $303.56.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 34,402 shares of company stock worth $9,559,382 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.