Natixis Advisors L.P. Grows Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Natixis Advisors L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,170,492 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 58,022 shares during the period. Visa comprises approximately 1.5% of Natixis Advisors L.P.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 7th biggest position. Natixis Advisors L.P.’s holdings in Visa were worth $565,087,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Visa by 4.7% during 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 buying an additional 2,257,605 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,927,122,000 after acquiring an additional 763,505 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 14,229,004 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,272,846,000 after purchasing an additional 374,489 shares during the period. Jennison Associates LLC raised its stake in Visa by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 11,824,113 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $3,078,408,000 after purchasing an additional 85,123 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 8,923,176 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $2,323,149,000 after purchasing an additional 189,764 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Susquehanna upped their price target on Visa from $300.00 to $326.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 29th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $321.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 target price on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $303.00.

Visa Stock Performance

NYSE:V traded up $1.23 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $268.55. The stock had a trading volume of 1,926,023 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,889,683. The stock has a market capitalization of $493.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.87, a PEG ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.14 and a 1-year high of $290.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 1.40 and a quick ratio of 1.40. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $278.79 and its 200-day simple moving average is $265.21.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 1st. The stock was 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 approximately $150,833.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 11,724 shares of company stock valued at $3,278,698. 0.19% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Visa 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.