Apollon Wealth Management LLC Has $14.78 Million Position in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Apollon Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 54.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 56,775 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,008 shares during the quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Visa were worth $14,781,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of V. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Visa by 17,418.7% in the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,233,338,000 after buying an additional 4,710,188 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 4.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $11,582,785,000 after purchasing an additional 2,257,605 shares during the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Visa during the 3rd quarter valued at about $358,349,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in Visa by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,929,979 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $903,955,000 after purchasing an additional 999,167 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,983,190 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $916,174,000 after purchasing an additional 871,439 shares during the last quarter. 82.15% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on V. Macquarie lifted their price target on Visa from $290.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Visa from $314.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $303.00.

Insider Activity

In other Visa news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director Lloyd Carney sold 909 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $275.55, for a total value of $250,474.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 2,591 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $713,950.05. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 538 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,724 shares of company stock worth $3,278,698 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock traded up $3.98 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $276.65. 6,376,783 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,887,064. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $277.94 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $266.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 1.40 and a current ratio of 1.40. Visa Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.14 and a 52 week high of $290.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $505.98 billion, a PE ratio of 30.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.84 and a beta of 0.95.

Visa (NYSE:V) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The credit-card processor reported $2.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.43 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.62 billion. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.09 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.94 EPS for the current year.

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.24%.

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.