Parnassus Investments LLC Acquires 250,619 Shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Parnassus Investments LLC grew its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2,622.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 260,174 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 250,619 shares during the period. Parnassus Investments LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $82,225,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Bradley & Co. Private Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Visa in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. POM Investment Strategies LLC grew its position in Visa by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. POM Investment Strategies LLC now owns 98 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Modus Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Visa in the fourth quarter worth $32,000. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on V shares. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Visa from $331.00 to $363.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Raymond James restated an “outperform” rating and set a $393.00 target price (up from $374.00) on shares of Visa in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Visa from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Visa Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of Visa stock opened at $327.98 on Friday. Visa Inc. has a twelve month low of $252.70 and a twelve month high of $366.54. The company has a quick ratio of 1.12, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $337.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $310.18. The firm has a market cap of $609.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.06, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The credit-card processor reported $2.75 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 11.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, February 11th were given a dividend of $0.59 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 11th. This represents a $2.36 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.72%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, insider Tullier Kelly Mahon sold 33,741 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.77, for a total value of $11,801,589.57. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 36,566 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,789,689.82. This trade represents a 47.99 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 value of $2,739,263.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 64,505 shares of company stock worth $22,290,507 over the last 90 days. 0.13% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.