Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Increases Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 13.0% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 519,233 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 59,746 shares during the period. Visa accounts for approximately 0.7% of Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $164,098,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Avalon Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 0.6% in the 4th quarter. Avalon Capital Management now owns 6,543 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,068,000 after purchasing an additional 39 shares during the last quarter. FourThought Financial Partners LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. FourThought Financial Partners LLC now owns 63,709 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $20,135,000 after buying an additional 821 shares during the period. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 8.4% during the fourth quarter. Twin Peaks Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,568 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $496,000 after buying an additional 121 shares during the period. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Commonwealth Retirement Investments LLC now owns 9,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,988,000 after buying an additional 213 shares during the period. Finally, Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC increased its position in Visa by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Fairhaven Wealth Management LLC now owns 20,683 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,537,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 55,885 shares of company stock worth $19,161,447. 0.13% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa Stock Up 1.4 %

NYSE:V opened at $355.56 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.12 and a quick ratio of 1.12. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $332.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $304.62. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $360.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $660.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.84, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.97.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on V. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Visa presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.96.

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.