Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Increases Stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE:V)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 37,189 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after buying an additional 478 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc.’s holdings in Visa were worth $9,682,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 17,418.7% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,737,229 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $1,233,338,000 after acquiring an additional 4,710,188 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Visa by 4.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 50,357,747 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $11,582,785,000 after acquiring an additional 2,257,605 shares in the last quarter. J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Visa during the third quarter worth about $358,349,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its stake in Visa by 34.1% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 3,929,979 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $903,955,000 after acquiring an additional 999,167 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Visa by 28.0% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,983,190 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $916,174,000 after acquiring an additional 871,439 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Visa Stock Performance

V stock traded down $0.58 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $274.58. 6,840,359 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,951,953. Visa Inc. has a 52-week low of $216.14 and a 52-week high of $290.96. The stock has a market cap of $504.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.68, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.40, a quick ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $279.24 and its 200 day moving average is $264.33.

Visa (NYSE:V) last announced its 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. Visa had a net margin of 53.87% and a return on equity of 51.23%. The business had revenue of $8.78 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.62 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.09 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 EPS for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 17th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 16th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.76%. Visa’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 23.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Visa

In other news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total value of $2,228,128.50. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total value of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,898 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,150 shares of Visa stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $273.39, for a total transaction of $2,228,128.50. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 18,965 shares of company stock worth $5,256,352 over the last 90 days. 0.19% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on V. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Visa from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Visa from $309.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barclays upped their target price on shares of Visa from $304.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Visa from $297.00 to $299.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $302.58.

Visa Company 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.