Legal & General Group Plc Boosts Stock Position in Visa Inc. $V

Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 12,458,913 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 399,845 shares during the quarter. Visa comprises about 1.0% of Legal & General Group Plc’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th biggest holding. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Visa were worth $4,253,224,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sagard Holdings Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Bare Financial Services Inc increased its stake in Visa by 287.0% during the 2nd quarter. Bare Financial Services Inc now owns 89 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 66 shares in the last quarter. Winnow Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 344.8% in the third quarter. Moisand Fitzgerald Tamayo LLC now owns 129 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $44,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sellwood Investment Partners LLC purchased a new position in Visa in the third quarter worth about $52,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of Visa stock in a transaction on Friday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total value of $3,661,152.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,401 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,282,641.18. The trade was a 52.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Down 0.4%

V opened at $316.03 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $573.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.65, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 0.78. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $328.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $337.05. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $299.00 and a twelve month high of $375.51. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.14 by $0.03. Visa had a net margin of 50.23% and a return on equity of 61.74%. The company had revenue of $10.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.69 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.75 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 14.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 10th were paid a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 10th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 25.14%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on V. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $411.00 price target (up from $398.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 30th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $385.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Macquarie Infrastructure reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $410.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $160.00 target price on Visa in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $392.65.

About Visa

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.