Grange Capital LLC Takes Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Grange Capital LLC acquired a new position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 900 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock, valued at approximately $284,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Visa by 45,189.4% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 9,758,505 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,683,101,000 after buying an additional 9,736,958 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 4,412.3% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 4,072,467 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,119,725,000 after acquiring an additional 4,166,905 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Visa by 4.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $21,064,179,000 after purchasing an additional 3,327,977 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Visa by 6.1% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 57,111,843 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $15,702,901,000 after purchasing an additional 3,265,518 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Visa by 7.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after purchasing an additional 2,772,549 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Visa Stock Performance

V opened at $334.16 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.28. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $252.70 and a 52-week high of $335.49. The firm has a market cap of $622.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.17 and a beta of 0.96. The business’s fifty day moving average is $314.95 and its 200-day moving average is $290.79.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 29th. The credit-card processor reported $2.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.58 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $9.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.49 billion. Visa had a net margin of 54.96% and a return on equity of 53.16%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.33 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 11.19 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $317.78, for a total transaction of $2,739,263.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 2,171 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.97, for a total transaction of $668,602.87. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 17,894 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,510,815.18. The trade was a 10.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on Visa from $311.00 to $322.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on Visa from $320.00 to $330.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Visa from $325.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of Visa from $279.00 to $292.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $335.52.

About Visa

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.