Czech National Bank Acquires 34,450 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 10.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 374,688 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 34,450 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 1.1% of Czech National Bank’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 13th biggest holding. Czech National Bank’s holdings in Visa were worth $118,416,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Inspire Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the second quarter valued at $218,000. Lyell Wealth Management LP raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 5.0% in the 2nd quarter. Lyell Wealth Management LP now owns 45,882 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $12,043,000 after purchasing an additional 2,204 shares during the period. Diversify Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Visa in the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,560,000. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management lifted its stake in Visa by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 20,459 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $5,370,000 after purchasing an additional 646 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pinion Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Visa by 2.3% during the second quarter. Pinion Investment Advisors LLC now owns 5,674 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,489,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

V has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $340.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Visa from $330.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on Visa from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, December 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $330.85.

Visa Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $307.71 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $321.61. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $312.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $287.04. The firm has a market cap of $573.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.62, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. This is an increase from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is 24.25%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,510,815.18. This trade represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by 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.