Axiom Investors LLC DE Has $264.34 Million Stock Holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Axiom Investors LLC DE grew its stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 11.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 836,418 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 89,206 shares during the period. Visa makes up approximately 1.9% of Axiom Investors LLC DE’s holdings, making the stock its 14th largest holding. Axiom Investors LLC DE’s holdings in Visa were worth $264,342,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of V. FSB Premier Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Visa by 8.7% during the 4th quarter. FSB Premier Wealth Management Inc. now owns 7,238 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $2,288,000 after purchasing an additional 579 shares in the last quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Visa by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 5,427 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,719,000 after buying an additional 475 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Visa by 13.0% in the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 294,904 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $93,201,000 after acquiring an additional 33,926 shares during the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Visa by 18.6% in the 4th quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 2,516,435 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $795,294,000 after acquiring an additional 395,372 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Martin Currie Ltd. increased its holdings in Visa by 193.9% during the 4th quarter. Martin Currie Ltd. now owns 143,859 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $45,465,000 after purchasing an additional 94,913 shares in the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Visa

In other Visa news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were 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 available through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Julie B. Rottenberg sold 2,572 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.00, for a total value of $874,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 11,925 shares in the company, valued at $4,054,500. The trade was a 17.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 143,205 shares of company stock worth $48,560,961. Insiders own 0.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have weighed in on V. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $393.00 price objective (up previously from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Visa from $326.00 to $371.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. StockNews.com upgraded Visa from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $355.84.

Visa Stock Down 2.1 %

Visa stock opened at $342.62 on Monday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $343.60 and a 200 day simple moving average of $315.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.12, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Visa Inc. has a 1-year low of $252.70 and a 1-year high of $366.54. The company has a market cap of $636.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

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 return on equity of 54.79% and a net margin of 54.27%. Research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.69%. Visa’s payout ratio is 23.79%.

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.