Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) Shares Acquired by Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 229,315 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,173 shares during the period. Visa makes up 1.0% of Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest position. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s holdings in Visa were worth $59,702,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its position in Visa by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 72,897,112 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $16,435,339,000 after purchasing an additional 2,572,159 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its position in shares of Visa by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 51,122,866 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $10,621,287,000 after buying an additional 5,864,340 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its position in Visa by 4.7% in 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 acquiring an additional 2,257,605 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in Visa by 116,608.6% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 24,504,130 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $5,090,978,000 after acquiring an additional 24,483,134 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in shares of Visa by 4.7% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 17,073,700 shares of the credit-card processor’s stock worth $3,927,122,000 after purchasing an additional 763,505 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.15% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Visa

In related news, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.36, for a total transaction of $2,298,952.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 538 shares in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Visa news, CAO Peter M. Andreski sold 2,615 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $278.88, for a total transaction of $729,271.20. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,898 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,365,954.24. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Ryan Mcinerney sold 8,200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $150,833.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 55,511 shares of company stock worth $15,131,081. Company insiders own 0.19% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on V shares. Redburn Atlantic restated a “neutral” rating and set a $307.00 price objective on shares of Visa in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Visa from $305.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. Wedbush raised their price objective on shares of Visa from $270.00 to $280.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 26th. KeyCorp raised their target price on Visa from $275.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their target price on shares of Visa from $325.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $296.87.

Visa Stock Performance

Shares of V opened at $271.28 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.45 and a quick ratio of 1.45. Visa Inc. has a one year low of $216.14 and a one year high of $290.96. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $280.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $262.19. The company has a market capitalization of $498.21 billion, a PE ratio of 31.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.96.

Visa (NYSE:V) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The credit-card processor reported $2.41 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.34 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $8.63 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $8.55 billion. Visa had a return on equity of 50.02% and a net margin of 53.92%. Visa’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.18 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Visa Inc. will post 9.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Visa Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 9th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, February 8th. Visa’s dividend payout ratio is currently 23.94%.

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.