Penney Financial LLC Acquires Shares of 645 Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Penney Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 645 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Custom Index Systems LLC purchased a new stake in Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $731,000. Copley Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the 3rd quarter valued at $616,000. Oak Ridge Investments LLC raised its position in Visa by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 75,456 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $23,847,000 after purchasing an additional 4,198 shares during the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Visa during the 3rd quarter worth $7,987,000. Finally, Chicago Capital LLC grew its position in Visa by 5.2% during the 3rd quarter. Chicago Capital LLC now owns 404,914 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $111,331,000 after purchasing an additional 20,023 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Price Performance

V opened at $342.05 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $351.25. The company has a 50 day moving average of $317.74 and a two-hundred day moving average of $292.96. The company has a market cap of $637.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.28, a current ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. On average, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.18 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.25%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on V. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Visa from $350.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Raymond James reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 price objective (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday. Macquarie lifted their target price on Visa from $300.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upped their price target on Visa from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $375.00 to $395.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $352.27.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total value of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 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.