Lincoln National Corp Increases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Lincoln National Corp raised its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 49,151 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 697 shares during the period. Lincoln National Corp’s holdings in Visa were worth $12,797,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in Visa in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. raised its position in Visa by 66.2% during the fourth quarter. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. now owns 236 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $61,000 after purchasing an additional 94 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Life Planning Partners Inc bought a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $71,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on V. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Mizuho increased their target price on shares of Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $287.00 to $311.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $303.00.

Visa Trading Up 1.4 %

V stock traded up $3.79 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $276.46. The company had a trading volume of 6,363,660 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,886,919. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.14 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The business has a 50 day moving average of $277.94 and a 200 day moving average of $266.06. The company has a market cap of $505.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.71, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted 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. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 11,724 shares of company stock worth $3,278,698. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

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.