Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. Grows Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C. grew its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 111.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,964 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,146 shares during the period. Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C.’s holdings in Visa were worth $1,885,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $50,378,465,000 after buying an additional 7,079,706 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in Visa in the fourth quarter valued at $1,955,403,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 17,018.7% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,949,118 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,248,079,000 after purchasing an additional 3,926,049 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on V shares. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Barclays lifted their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.96.

Visa Stock Down 0.2 %

V stock opened at $344.05 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $342.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $314.42. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The stock has a market cap of $639.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.68, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.79%.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total transaction of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

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.