Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Purchases 15,689 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 6.6% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 252,523 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 15,689 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $65,744,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hibernia Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at $25,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 545.5% during the 3rd quarter. Nalls Sherbakoff Group LLC now owns 142 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the fourth quarter valued at about $37,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Visa Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $271.37 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.14 and a 1 year high of $290.96. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $279.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $262.62. The company has a market cap of $498.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.23, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $8.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.55 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.92% and a return on equity of 50.02%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.18 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Investors of record on Friday, February 9th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.94%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on the stock. Redburn Atlantic restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $307.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wedbush raised their target price on Visa from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. UBS Group upped their price target on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Visa from $290.00 to $309.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Visa from $296.00 to $306.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 18th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $298.43.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 18,965 shares of company stock worth $5,256,352. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Visa

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.