Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC Increases Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. $V

Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC raised its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 362.7% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 40,298 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 31,589 shares during the quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $12,180,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $56,455,834,000 after purchasing an additional 1,054,343 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 82,798,151 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,038,140,000 after buying an additional 626,821 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 44,042,586 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,411,395,000 after buying an additional 388,996 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 41,092,294 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $14,411,480,000 after buying an additional 716,218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.8% during the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 24,792,246 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $8,463,484,000 after buying an additional 193,288 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 1.7%

Shares of Visa stock opened at $341.86 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $613.22 billion, a PE ratio of 29.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.77. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $323.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $324.40. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $293.89 and a 1 year high of $359.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $11.23 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. Visa had a net margin of 51.68% and a return on equity of 65.00%. The firm’s revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.76 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Visa Inc. will post 13.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit-card processor to purchase up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.34%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total value of $10,699,103.70. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 15,174 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,161,284.36. This represents a 67.46% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total transaction of $3,455,653.59. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 9,872 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,206,524.32. This trade represents a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.12% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on V. Loop Capital initiated coverage on Visa in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $387.00 price target for the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on Visa from $390.00 to $410.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $403.00 price objective (up from $391.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $400.00 target price on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Evercore set a $350.00 target price on Visa in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $397.96.

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.