M. Kraus & Co Reduces Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

M. Kraus & Co decreased its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,683 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after selling 37 shares during the quarter. M. Kraus & Co’s holdings in Visa were worth $532,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Edgestream Partners L.P. increased its position in Visa by 27.0% during the second quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 9,860 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,588,000 after acquiring an additional 2,096 shares during the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Visa by 0.5% in the second quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 217,597 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $57,113,000 after purchasing an additional 1,078 shares during the last quarter. Charles Lim Capital Ltd grew its stake in shares of Visa by 225.0% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Lim Capital Ltd now owns 325,000 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $85,303,000 after purchasing an additional 225,000 shares during the period. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 8.1% during the 2nd quarter. Meridian Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,593 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $418,000 after purchasing an additional 119 shares during the period. Finally, Lingotto Investment Management LLP increased its position in shares of Visa by 11.2% during the 2nd quarter. Lingotto Investment Management LLP now owns 32,348 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $8,490,000 after purchasing an additional 3,253 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on V shares. Monness Crespi & Hardt reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on Visa from $319.00 to $347.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-four have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $331.92.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. This represents a 10.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

Visa stock opened at $316.45 on Thursday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $321.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $312.76 and its 200 day moving average is $287.65. The company has a market cap of $589.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.52, a PEG ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business’s revenue was up 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 12th were issued a $0.59 dividend. This is a boost from Visa’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.52. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, November 12th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s payout ratio is 24.25%.

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.