Erste Asset Management GmbH Grows Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Erste Asset Management GmbH boosted its holdings in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 517,523 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,922 shares during the quarter. Visa accounts for approximately 1.9% of Erste Asset Management GmbH’s holdings, making the stock its 7th largest position. Erste Asset Management GmbH’s holdings in Visa were worth $154,629,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Tredje AP fonden lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 21.5% during the 4th quarter. Tredje AP fonden now owns 398,789 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $126,033,000 after buying an additional 70,490 shares during the period. Vestcor Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 60,289 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $19,054,000 after buying an additional 962 shares during the period. Mascoma Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Mascoma Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,697 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $536,000 after buying an additional 155 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Visa by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 4,719,000 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock valued at $1,491,393,000 after buying an additional 46,600 shares during the period. Finally, Alfreton Capital LLP bought a new position in shares of Visa during the 4th quarter valued at $56,887,000. 82.15% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Visa Trading Up 0.3 %

V opened at $333.01 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $618.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.57, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 0.95. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $337.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $310.05. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $252.70 and a one year high of $366.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a current ratio of 1.12.

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

Visa Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 11th were paid 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 0.71%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on V shares. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Visa from $346.00 to $384.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Thursday, February 13th. 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. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com cut Visa from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, twenty-two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Visa has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $353.96.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,332 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $349.62, for a total transaction of $815,313.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,569,094.56. This trade represents a 34.19 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,620 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 have sold a total of 64,505 shares of company stock valued at $22,290,507 over the last quarter. 0.13% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.