Stevens Capital Management LP Takes Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Stevens Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 41,726 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $10,863,000. Visa accounts for 2.7% of Stevens Capital Management LP’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest holding.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Syon Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 23.2% during the fourth quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 16,486 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,292,000 after buying an additional 3,103 shares in the last quarter. Cross Staff Investments Inc grew its position in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Cross Staff Investments Inc now owns 5,868 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,528,000 after buying an additional 258 shares in the last quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA grew its position in shares of Visa by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Roffman Miller Associates Inc. PA now owns 119,296 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,059,000 after buying an additional 1,048 shares in the last quarter. Nadler Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Visa by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Nadler Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,900 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $495,000 after purchasing an additional 44 shares during the period. Finally, Channing Global Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Visa by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Channing Global Advisors LLC now owns 12,364 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,219,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Redburn Atlantic reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 price target on shares of Visa in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $302.58.

Visa Stock Down 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE V traded down $0.64 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $274.52. The stock had a trading volume of 6,814,753 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,951,645. The company has a market capitalization of $504.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $279.32 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $264.05. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.14 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a current ratio of 1.40.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.43 by $0.08. Visa had a return on equity of 51.23% and a net margin of 53.87%. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.09 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.24%.

Insider Transactions at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Visa news, 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 value of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 18,965 shares of company stock worth $5,256,352 over the last three months. 0.19% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Visa Company 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.