Buffington Mohr McNeal Boosts Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Buffington Mohr McNeal raised its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 39,667 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 664 shares during the period. Visa accounts for 2.0% of Buffington Mohr McNeal’s holdings, making the stock its 19th biggest position. Buffington Mohr McNeal’s holdings in Visa were worth $11,070,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $3,895,015,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% in the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,233,338,000 after buying an additional 4,710,188 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its position in Visa by 14,306.3% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 1,500,270 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $390,595,000 after purchasing an additional 1,489,856 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in Visa by 8.0% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 17,895,788 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $4,659,169,000 after purchasing an additional 1,323,238 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Visa by 139.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 2,185,077 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $568,885,000 after purchasing an additional 1,272,211 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares in the company, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 25,293 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.15, for a total value of $7,009,954.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 17,894 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,959,322.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total transaction of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $713,950.05. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $315.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Citigroup raised their price objective 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. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. TD Cowen assumed coverage on shares of Visa in a research report on Thursday, April 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $320.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Macquarie increased their target price on shares of Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $303.56.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of Visa stock traded up $4.99 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $268.23. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,695,970 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,833,536. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $273.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $273.61. Visa Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $227.68 and a fifty-two week high of $290.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The firm has a market cap of $490.58 billion, a PE ratio of 29.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. Visa’s quarterly revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.09 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.78%. Visa’s payout ratio is currently 23.24%.

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.