Westerkirk Capital Inc. Purchases 3,287 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Westerkirk Capital Inc. increased its position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.3% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 43,053 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 3,287 shares during the period. Visa comprises 1.7% of Westerkirk Capital Inc.’s portfolio, making the stock its 10th largest holding. Westerkirk Capital Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $14,697,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 2nd quarter worth $7,034,939,000. TCI Fund Management Ltd. increased its stake in Visa by 14.6% in the second quarter. TCI Fund Management Ltd. now owns 19,067,558 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $6,769,936,000 after purchasing an additional 2,429,996 shares during the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in Visa by 110.4% in the second quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 3,954,937 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,396,930,000 after purchasing an additional 2,075,289 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Visa by 0.9% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 162,544,006 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $57,711,249,000 after buying an additional 1,461,575 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 43,096,802 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,253,245,000 after buying an additional 1,067,631 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. HSBC raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 8th. UBS Group reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald raised Visa to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 27th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twenty have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $391.43.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 10,485 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $349.18, for a total value 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. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.12% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V stock opened at $320.90 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51. The company has a market cap of $582.49 billion, a PE ratio of 30.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.79. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $336.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $338.96. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $299.00 and a 52 week high of $375.51.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $10.90 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.69 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 61.74% and a net margin of 50.23%.The firm’s revenue was up 14.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $2.75 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 2nd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 10th will be given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, February 10th. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. Visa’s payout ratio is 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.