Freedom Day Solutions LLC Boosts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Freedom Day Solutions LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 3.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,188 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the period. Freedom Day Solutions LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $375,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Visa by 4.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 6.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $10,601,135,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its holdings in Visa by 1.1% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 11,597,969 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,188,862,000 after purchasing an additional 123,927 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 6.2% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,522,445 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,168,096,000 after purchasing an additional 670,590 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of Visa stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total transaction of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 55,885 shares of company stock valued at $19,161,447. 0.13% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of V opened at $348.27 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $357.15. The stock has a market cap of $647.01 billion, a PE ratio of 35.11, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.97. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $329.14 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $302.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. As a group, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be paid a $0.59 dividend. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Visa from $310.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their target price on shares of Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Bank of America increased their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $355.31.

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.