Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS Buys 6,020 Shares of Visa Inc. $V

Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS raised its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 8.6% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 76,046 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,020 shares during the quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS’s holdings in Visa were worth $22,984,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in V. Invariant Investment Management purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth about $969,000. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. raised its position in Visa by 58.1% during the first quarter. Nixon Peabody Trust Co. now owns 4,201 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,270,000 after acquiring an additional 1,543 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Visa by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 160,975,832 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $56,455,834,000 after acquiring an additional 1,054,343 shares during the period. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd boosted its position in Visa by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 527,530 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $180,088,000 after purchasing an additional 23,863 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Savvy Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Visa by 30.1% in the 4th quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 28,922 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,143,000 after purchasing an additional 6,688 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Chris Suh sold 10,639 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $324.81, for a total transaction of $3,455,653.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 9,872 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,206,524.32. The trade was a 51.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 31,455 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.14, for a total value of $10,699,103.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 15,174 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,161,284.36. This represents a 67.46% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold 75,581 shares of company stock worth $25,627,975 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.12% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

V has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James Financial restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $389.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on Visa from $450.00 to $400.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, April 14th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $415.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Cantor Fitzgerald reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $400.00 price target on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Loop Capital assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $387.00 price target for the company. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $397.91.

Visa Trading Up 0.2%

NYSE:V traded up $0.85 on Friday, reaching $349.05. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,701,656 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,985,494. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $330.81 and a 200 day moving average price of $325.05. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $293.89 and a 12-month high of $365.02. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market cap of $626.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.75.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The credit-card processor reported $3.31 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.10 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $11.23 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.75 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 65.00% and a net margin of 51.68%.The company’s quarterly revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.76 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 13.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Tuesday, April 28th that allows the company to buyback $20.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the credit-card processor to buy up to 3.6% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 12th were issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, May 12th. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.34%.

About Visa

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.