Joseph Group Capital Management Grows Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Joseph Group Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 9.9% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 15,844 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,422 shares during the period. Visa makes up 2.0% of Joseph Group Capital Management’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest holding. Joseph Group Capital Management’s holdings in Visa were worth $5,007,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 159,405,343 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $50,378,465,000 after purchasing an additional 7,079,706 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its position in Visa by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 76,610,942 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $21,064,179,000 after buying an additional 3,327,977 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Visa by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 38,655,250 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,601,135,000 after acquiring an additional 2,772,549 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter valued at about $5,171,271,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Visa by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 12,241,003 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,868,646,000 after acquiring an additional 718,558 shares during the period. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, March 21st. Barclays upped their price objective on Visa from $361.00 to $396.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $355.84.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,054,500. This represents a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961 over the last three months. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Visa Stock Down 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE:V opened at $342.62 on Friday. 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 has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.54, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $343.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $315.27. Visa Inc. has a 12-month low of $252.70 and a 12-month high of $366.54.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.66 by $0.09. Visa had a net margin of 54.27% and a return on equity of 54.79%. On average, research analysts forecast that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 11th. Visa’s payout ratio 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.