Machina Capital S.A.S. Takes $493,000 Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Machina Capital S.A.S. acquired a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 1,894 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $493,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in V. Altshuler Shaham Ltd bought a new position in Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Visa by 66.2% during the 4th quarter. Stuart Chaussee & Associates Inc. now owns 236 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 94 shares during the period. Finally, Macroview Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 1,019.2% during the 3rd quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 291 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 265 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE:V traded up $4.18 on Monday, reaching $272.67. 3,931,997 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,881,426. The firm has a market capitalization of $498.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.47, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.14 and a 1-year high of $290.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The company’s 50 day moving average is $277.94 and its 200-day moving average is $266.06.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced 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 business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.09 earnings per share. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction 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 SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the business’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 completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 11,724 shares of company stock valued at $3,278,698. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Mizuho lifted their price objective on Visa from $265.00 to $275.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 6th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. 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 report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Five equities research 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 company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $303.00.

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.