Generali Investments Management Co LLC Takes Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Generali Investments Management Co LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 4,439 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $1,403,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. GM Advisory Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 6.1% during the 4th quarter. GM Advisory Group LLC now owns 12,830 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $4,055,000 after purchasing an additional 743 shares in the last quarter. GCQ FUNDS MANAGEMENT PTY Ltd bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $47,974,000. Investment House LLC raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Investment House LLC now owns 47,806 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $15,109,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 520.0% during the 4th quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 12,432 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,932,000 after purchasing an additional 10,427 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vinva Investment Management Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Visa by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Vinva Investment Management Ltd now owns 84,777 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $26,731,000 after purchasing an additional 9,837 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 103,855 shares of company stock valued at $35,165,827 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

V has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Piper Sandler reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $383.00 target price (up previously from $368.00) on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

Shares of Visa stock opened at $334.30 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $338.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $312.02. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The firm has a market cap of $621.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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, research analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

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.