M&G PLC Purchases 102,434 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

M&G PLC boosted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 16.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 731,550 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 102,434 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 1.3% of M&G PLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 19th biggest holding. M&G PLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $249,459,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Brighton Jones LLC increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 50.1% in the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 20,635 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $6,522,000 after acquiring an additional 6,883 shares in the last quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 68.9% in the 4th quarter. Revolve Wealth Partners LLC now owns 11,811 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,733,000 after purchasing an additional 4,817 shares during the period. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. increased its stake in Visa by 4.6% during the 1st quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. now owns 10,941 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,834,000 after purchasing an additional 477 shares in the last quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY raised its holdings in Visa by 16.9% during the 2nd quarter. Matrix Asset Advisors Inc. NY now owns 1,133 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $402,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the period. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 5.1% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 231,510 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $82,198,000 after buying an additional 11,334 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,172 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $325.93, for a total transaction of $707,919.96. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 26,413 shares in the company, valued at $8,608,789.09. The trade was a 7.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total transaction of $3,661,152.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 9,401 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,282,641.18. This trade represents a 52.73% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently weighed in on V. Citigroup upgraded shares of Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Robert W. Baird set a $425.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, October 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Daiwa America upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Finally, Piper Sandler set a $160.00 price objective on Visa in a report on Wednesday, January 28th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $392.21.

Visa Price Performance

NYSE:V opened at $314.13 on Monday. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $299.00 and a 52-week high of $375.51. The company has a market cap of $570.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.11. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $337.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $339.73.

Visa (NYSE:V) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The credit-card processor reported $3.17 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.14 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $10.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.69 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 61.74% and a net margin of 50.23%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.75 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 10th. Visa’s payout ratio is presently 25.14%.

Visa Company Profile

Visa Inc is a global payments technology company that facilitates electronic funds transfers and digital commerce by connecting consumers, merchants, financial institutions and governments. The firm operates one of the world’s largest payment networks, providing processing, authorization, clearing and settlement services for credit, debit and prepaid card transactions. Visa’s network-based model enables partner banks and other issuers to offer branded payment products while Visa focuses on the infrastructure, standards and technologies that move money securely and efficiently around the world.

Visa’s product and service portfolio includes card-based payment products for consumers and businesses, real-time push-payment capabilities, tokenization and authentication services, fraud and risk-management tools, data analytics and APIs for fintech and merchant integration.