SlateStone Wealth LLC Has $7.25 Million Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

SlateStone Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 27,828 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 526 shares during the period. Visa comprises about 0.9% of SlateStone Wealth LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding. SlateStone Wealth LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $7,245,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,582,785,000 after purchasing an additional 2,257,605 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its position in Visa by 4.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,927,122,000 after buying an additional 763,505 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in Visa by 2.7% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,229,004 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,272,846,000 after buying an additional 374,489 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in Visa by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 11,824,113 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,078,408,000 after buying an additional 85,123 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. grew its position in Visa by 1.5% during the third quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 7,542,434 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,734,835,000 after buying an additional 108,280 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

V has been the subject of several analyst reports. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised their target price on Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $309.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Mizuho restated a “neutral” rating and set a $265.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $301.35.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total value of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 18,965 shares of company stock valued at $5,256,352. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Up 2.8 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $281.72 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $517.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.56, a P/E/G ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 0.96. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $279.49 and a 200 day moving average price of $263.90. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.14 and a fifty-two week high of $290.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.45, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.62 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $2.09 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.88 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.94%.

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.