Level Four Advisory Services LLC Grows Stock Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Level Four Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 41,521 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 898 shares during the period. Level Four Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $13,123,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Howard Capital Management Group LLC lifted its position in Visa by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Howard Capital Management Group LLC now owns 106,355 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $29,242,000 after acquiring an additional 610 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,733,284 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,576,366,000 after acquiring an additional 411,210 shares during the last quarter. Algert Global LLC purchased a new position in shares of Visa during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,778,000. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its position in shares of Visa by 110.5% in the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 27,957 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $7,687,000 after acquiring an additional 14,675 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boussard & Gavaudan Investment Management LLP acquired a new position in shares of Visa in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,425,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on Visa from $340.00 to $375.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Barclays increased their price target on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In related 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Paul D. Fabara sold 39,350 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $327.20, for a total value of $12,875,320.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 26,413 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,642,333.60. This represents a 59.84 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Visa Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE V opened at $349.82 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $649.89 billion, a PE ratio of 35.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $343.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $314.66.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were issued a $0.59 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

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.