Blue Grotto Capital LLC Takes $4.74 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Blue Grotto Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 15,000 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $4,741,000. Visa accounts for about 0.9% of Blue Grotto Capital LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest holding.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in V. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in Visa during the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa by 48.5% in the fourth quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. Modus Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Compass Planning Associates Inc acquired a new position in Visa during the fourth quarter worth $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on V shares. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $395.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating 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 company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Visa presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Visa Price Performance

V stock opened at $344.95 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $640.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.77, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $341.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $314.21. Visa Inc. has a 1 year low of $252.70 and a 1 year high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

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

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.79%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total value of $2,739,263.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.41, for a total transaction of $13,395,133.50. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,991,249.33. This trade represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 143,205 shares of company stock valued at $48,560,961. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Company 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.